VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
The Iguazu Falls in the green jungle, Puerto Iguazu
Puerto IguazuThe Iguazu Falls in the green jungle

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Puerto Iguazu by Muhammed Ballan, Pexels License.

Playa del Carmen or Puerto Iguazu?

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

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’s own page.

Choose Puerto Iguazu for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Iguazu’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. Playa del Carmen 88, Puerto Iguazu 5: Playa del Carmen leads by 83 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Puerto Iguazu 28: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Puerto Iguazu 9: Playa del Carmen leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Puerto Iguazu 14: Playa del Carmen leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Puerto Iguazu 95: Puerto Iguazu leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Puerto Iguazu 33: Playa del Carmen leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Puerto Iguazu 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Puerto Iguazu 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Puerto Iguazu 17: Playa del Carmen leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Puerto Iguazu 48: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Puerto Iguazu 7: Playa del Carmen leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Puerto Iguazu 34: Playa del Carmen leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and Puerto Iguazu.

Your match

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

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Puerto Iguazu
33match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Puerto Iguazu in July

22 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
103 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenPuerto Iguazu

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. Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Puerto Iguazu: 1991-2020 normals, Iguazu Aerodrome (17.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenPuerto Iguazu
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation8 m162 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsCataratas Del Iguazú International Airport (IGR)18 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenPuerto Iguazu
City population304,94254,903
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Playa del Carmen or Puerto Iguazu somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.