VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Kathmandu or Playa del Carmen?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Kathmandu for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Kathmandu’s own page.

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Kathmandu 4, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, Playa del Carmen 52: Kathmandu leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, Playa del Carmen 12: Kathmandu leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu 36, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu 70, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 58 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu 25, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, Playa del Carmen 38: Kathmandu leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, Playa del Carmen 52: Kathmandu leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, Playa del Carmen 22: Kathmandu leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Kathmandu
48match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduPlaya del Carmen

Where the figures come from

Playa del Carmen has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduPlaya del Carmen
Official languageNepaliSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101911
Elevation1,300 m8 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduPlaya del Carmen
City population845,767304,942
People per km²17,121-
Museums within 10 km90
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu or Playa del Carmen somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.