VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Manila 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 Manila for

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

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Manila 12, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, Playa del Carmen 52: Manila leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, Playa del Carmen 12: Manila leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, Playa del Carmen 38: Manila leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, Playa del Carmen 52: Manila leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, Playa del Carmen 22: Manila leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 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: Manila and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Manila
48match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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.

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaPlaya 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. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureManilaPlaya del Carmen
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation9 m8 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaPlaya del Carmen
City population1,902,590304,942
People per km²76,104-
Museums within 10 km270
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Manila 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.