VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang 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 Luang Prabang for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. Luang Prabang 14, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Playa del Carmen 12: Luang Prabang leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang and Playa del Carmen are level on 38.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Playa del Carmen 52: Luang Prabang leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Playa del Carmen 22: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Playa del Carmen 54: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangPlaya 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. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangPlaya del Carmen
Official languageLaoSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190911
Elevation305 m8 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangPlaya del Carmen
City population53,792304,942
Museums within 10 km00
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 Luang Prabang 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.