VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or Taipei?

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
  • families

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

Choose Taipei for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Playa del Carmen leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Taipei 68: Taipei leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Taipei 58: Playa del Carmen leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Taipei 78: Taipei leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Taipei 76: Taipei leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Taipei 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Taipei 66: Taipei leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Taipei 55: Taipei leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 26 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink 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

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenTaipei

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.

Taipei has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenTaipei
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number911110 or 112 or 119
Elevation8 m10 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenTaipei
City population304,9422,429,429
People per km²-8,938
Museums within 10 km069
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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