VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
Château Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace, Quebec City
Quebec CityChâteau Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Quebec City by Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or Quebec City?

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 Quebec City for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Quebec City’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, Quebec City 18: Playa del Carmen leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Quebec City 57: Quebec City leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Quebec City 70: Quebec City leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Quebec City 42: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Quebec City 79: Quebec City leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Quebec City 58: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Quebec City 64: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Quebec City 50: Playa del Carmen leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Quebec City 45: Quebec City leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Quebec City 45: Playa del Carmen leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Quebec City 52: Quebec City leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Quebec City 55: Quebec City leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and Quebec City.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Quebec City
53match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Quebec City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenQuebec City

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. Quebec City: 1991-2020 normals, Beauport (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenQuebec City
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m98 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsQuebec Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB)13 km from centre34 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenQuebec City
City population304,942574,482
People per km²-1,184
Museums within 10 km016
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 Quebec City 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.