VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or San Jose?

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
  • prices

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

Choose San Jose for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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, San Jose 30: Playa del Carmen leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, San Jose 36: San Jose leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, San Jose 33: Playa del Carmen leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, San Jose 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, San Jose 65: Playa del Carmen leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, San Jose 30: Playa del Carmen leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, San Jose 20: Playa del Carmen leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, San Jose 30: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and San Jose.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

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

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenSan Jose

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 Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenSan Jose
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m25 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenSan Jose
City population304,9421,013,240
People per km²-2,167
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 San Jose 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.