Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.
Playa del Carmen or San Francisco?
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
- families
What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’s own page.
Choose San Francisco for
- culture and sights
- live music and the arts
- food and drink
What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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 San Francisco.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.
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
San Francisco 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.
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. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Playa del Carmen | San Francisco |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya | - |
| Currency | Mexican Peso (MXN) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB127 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5 | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 8 m | 16 m |
| Main airport | Cancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations | San Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Playa del Carmen | San Francisco |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 304,942 | 873,965 |
| People per km² | - | 1,455 |
| Museums within 10 km | 0 | 51 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Playa del Carmen or San Francisco somewhere new.