VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or Tampa?

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

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Tampa for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Tampa 57: Tampa leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Tampa 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Tampa 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Tampa 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen and Tampa are level on 78.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Tampa 22: Playa del Carmen leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Tampa 40: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Tampa 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 Tampa.

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 getting around and wellness with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenTampa

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. Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenTampa
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 m30 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenTampa
City population304,942384,959
People per km²-848
Museums within 10 km06
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 Tampa 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.