VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
The Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace, Split
SplitThe Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Split by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or Split?

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

  • families
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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

Choose Split for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Split’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, Split 75: Playa del Carmen leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Split 57: Split leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Split 66: Split leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Split 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Split 77: Split leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Split 78: Split leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Split 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Split 67: Split leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Split 32: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Split 45: Playa del Carmen leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Split 37: Split leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Split 40: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and Split.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on families and nightlife with your weighting.

Split
57match

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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Split in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
25 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenSplit

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. Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenSplit
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaCroatian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation8 m0 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenSplit
City population304,942160,577
Museums within 10 km011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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