VacationSelector
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Oslo 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 Oslo for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Oslo 36, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Oslo 55, Playa del Carmen 52: Oslo leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Oslo 66, Playa del Carmen 12: Oslo leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Oslo 48, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oslo 82, Playa del Carmen 74: Oslo leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Oslo 52, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Oslo 63, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Oslo 85, Playa del Carmen 55: Oslo leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Oslo 50, Playa del Carmen 38: Oslo leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Oslo 14, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oslo 62, Playa del Carmen 22: Oslo leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oslo 60, Playa del Carmen 54: Oslo leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oslo and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Oslo
56match

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

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on beaches 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.

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OsloPlaya 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. Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureOsloPlaya del Carmen
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110911
Elevation23 m8 m
Main airportOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsloPlaya del Carmen
City population717,710304,942
Museums within 10 km600
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 Oslo 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.