VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Key West 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 Key West for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • day trips
  • families
  • prices

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. Key West 60, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Playa del Carmen 12: Key West leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Playa del Carmen 55: Key West leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Playa del Carmen 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Playa del Carmen 22: Key West leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Key West
44match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips 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.

Key West in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestPlaya del Carmen

Where the figures come from

Key West's temperatures are measured 69 km from the centre, at Key West Airport.

Key West has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureKey WestPlaya del Carmen
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m8 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestPlaya del Carmen
City population26,444304,942
People per km²1,407-
Museums within 10 km70
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Key West 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.