Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.
Playa del Carmen or Punta del Este?
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
- prices
- day trips
- families
What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’s own page.
Choose Punta del Este for
- culture and sights
- shopping
What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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 Punta del Este.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.
Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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
Punta del Este 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.
Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.
Punta del Este 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.
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. Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Playa del Carmen | Punta del Este |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya | - |
| Currency | Mexican Peso (MXN) | Peso Uruguayo (UYU) |
| Sockets | AB127 V, 60 Hz | CFIL230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5 | UTC-3 |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 8 m | 11 m |
| Main airport | Cancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations | Capitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 15 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Playa del Carmen | Punta del Este |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 304,942 | 9,277 |
| People per km² | - | 455 |
| Museums within 10 km | 0 | 5 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 3 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Playa del Carmen or Punta del Este somewhere new.