VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
Savannah City Hall and its golden dome, Savannah
SavannahSavannah City Hall and its golden dome

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Savannah by Chris M Morris, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or Savannah?

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
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Savannah for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Savannah’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, Savannah 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Savannah 58: Savannah leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Savannah 68: Savannah leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Savannah 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Savannah 48: Playa del Carmen leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Savannah 60: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Savannah 50: Playa del Carmen leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Savannah 58: Savannah leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Savannah 42: Savannah leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Savannah 35: Playa del Carmen leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Savannah 40: Savannah leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Savannah 40: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and Savannah.

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 families with your weighting.

Savannah
51match

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

Savannah in July

34 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
144 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenSavannah

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. Savannah: 1991-2020 normals, Savannah Airport (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenSavannah
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m15 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsSavannah Hilton Head International Airport (SAV)12 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenSavannah
City population304,942147,780
People per km²-524
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Playa del Carmen or Savannah 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.