VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles for

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

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • 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. Los Angeles 60, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Playa del Carmen 52: Los Angeles leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Playa del Carmen 12: Los Angeles leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Playa del Carmen 66: Los Angeles leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Playa del Carmen 74: Los Angeles leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Playa del Carmen 78: Los Angeles leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Playa del Carmen 38: Los Angeles leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Playa del Carmen 22: Los Angeles leads by 61 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Playa del Carmen 54: Los Angeles leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

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

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °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
Los AngelesPlaya 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. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesPlaya 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
Elevation106 m8 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesPlaya del Carmen
City population3,898,747304,942
People per km²2,994-
Museums within 10 km390
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Los Angeles 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.