VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or Salt Lake 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
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake 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, Salt Lake City 12: Playa del Carmen leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Salt Lake City 40: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Salt Lake City 42: Salt Lake City leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Salt Lake City 30: Playa del Carmen leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Salt Lake City 34: Playa del Carmen leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Salt Lake City 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Salt Lake City 42: Playa del Carmen leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Salt Lake City 36: Playa del Carmen leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Salt Lake City 40: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Salt Lake City 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and Salt Lake City.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenSalt Lake 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. Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenSalt Lake City
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m1,288 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenSalt Lake City
City population304,942199,723
People per km²-690
Museums within 10 km012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Salt Lake 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.