VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
The Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms, Tangier
TangierThe Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Tangier by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or Tangier?

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
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Tangier for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Tangier’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, Tangier 50: Playa del Carmen leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Tangier 58: Tangier leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Tangier 57: Tangier leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Tangier 30: Playa del Carmen leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Tangier 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen and Tangier are level on 72.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Tangier 35: Playa del Carmen leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Tangier 40: Playa del Carmen leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Tangier 42: Tangier leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Tangier 76: Tangier leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Tangier 28: Tangier leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Tangier 50: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and Tangier.

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 families and beaches with your weighting.

Tangier
49match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Tangier in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenTangier

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. Tangier: 1991-2020 normals, Tanger Aerodrome (9.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenTangier
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1
Emergency number911Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation8 m56 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsTangier Ibn Battuta Airport (TNG)11 km from centre50 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenTangier
City population304,9421,275,428
People per km²-6,393
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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