VacationSelector
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • getting around

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. Laguna Beach 72, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Laguna Beach 40, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Laguna Beach 27, Playa del Carmen 12: Laguna Beach leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Laguna Beach 18, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Laguna Beach 73, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Laguna Beach and Playa del Carmen are level on 72.
Good for families. Laguna Beach 68, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Laguna Beach 33, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Laguna Beach 46, Playa del Carmen 38: Laguna Beach leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Laguna Beach 12, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Laguna Beach 40, Playa del Carmen 22: Laguna Beach leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Laguna Beach 47, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Laguna Beach and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Laguna Beach
46match

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

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Laguna BeachPlaya 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. Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLaguna BeachPlaya 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-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m8 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLaguna BeachPlaya del Carmen
City population23,032304,942
People per km²907-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Laguna Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.