VacationSelector
The Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens, Marrakech
MarrakechThe Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Marrakech by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Marrakech 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 Marrakech for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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. Marrakech 7, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Marrakech 64, Playa del Carmen 52: Marrakech leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Marrakech 76, Playa del Carmen 12: Marrakech leads by 64 points.
Nightlife. Marrakech 33, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marrakech 70, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Marrakech 28, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Marrakech 25, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 53 points.
Getting around. Marrakech 38, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Marrakech 72, Playa del Carmen 38: Marrakech leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Marrakech 72, Playa del Carmen 52: Marrakech leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marrakech 25, Playa del Carmen 22: Marrakech leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marrakech 75, Playa del Carmen 54: Marrakech leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marrakech and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Marrakech
49match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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.

Marrakech in July

38 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MarrakechPlaya 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. Marrakech: 1991-2020 normals, Marrakech (5.1 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMarrakechPlaya del Carmen
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation465 m8 m
Main airportMarrakesh Menara Airport (RAK)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarrakechPlaya del Carmen
City population1,002,697304,942
People per km²4,360-
Museums within 10 km140
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 Marrakech 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.