VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Playa del Carmen or Reykjavik?

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
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Playa del Carmen leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Reykjavik 42: Playa del Carmen leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Reykjavik 25: Reykjavik leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Reykjavik 45: Playa del Carmen leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Reykjavik 35: Playa del Carmen leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Reykjavik 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen and Reykjavik are level on 55.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Reykjavik 25: Playa del Carmen leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Reykjavik 6: Playa del Carmen leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and Reykjavik.

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 prices with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenReykjavik

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. Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenReykjavik
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaIcelandic
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC
Emergency number911112
Elevation8 m8 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenReykjavik
City population304,942138,772
People per km²-569
Museums within 10 km023
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Playa del Carmen or Reykjavik 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.