Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped.
Playa del Carmen or Positano?
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 Playa del Carmen for
- families
- nightlife
- prices
What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’s own page.
Choose Positano for
- day trips
- culture and sights
- shopping
What lies behind each score is written up on Positano’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and Positano.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on families and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.
What matters to you?
When should you go?
Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.
Playa del Carmen in July
Positano in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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.
Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.
Positano has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.
Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.
Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Playa del Carmen | Positano |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya | Italian |
| Currency | Mexican Peso (MXN) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | AB127 V, 60 Hz | CFL230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5 | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 112 |
| Elevation | 8 m | 142 m |
| Main airport | Cancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre135 non-stop destinations | Naples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Playa del Carmen | Positano |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 304,942 | 3,729 |
| People per km² | - | 429 |
| Museums within 10 km | 0 | 10 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 5 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Playa del Carmen or Positano somewhere new.