Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Tel Aviv by israeltourism, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.
Playa del Carmen or Tel Aviv?
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
- prices
- nature and the outdoors
- wellness
What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’s own page.
Choose Tel Aviv for
- live music and the arts
- culture and sights
- food and drink
What lies behind each score is written up on Tel Aviv’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and Tel Aviv.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.
Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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
Tel Aviv in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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. Tel Aviv: 1991-2020 normals, Bet Dagan (9.5 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Playa del Carmen | Tel Aviv |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya | Hebrew |
| Currency | Mexican Peso (MXN) | New Israeli Sheqel (ILS) |
| Sockets | AB127 V, 60 Hz | CHM230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5 | UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | Police 100, fire 102 |
| Elevation | 8 m | 5 m |
| Main airport | Cancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations | Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV)13 km from centre111 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | - |
By the numbers
| Measure | Playa del Carmen | Tel Aviv |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 304,942 | 467,875 |
| People per km² | - | 8,998 |
| Museums within 10 km | 0 | 98 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 2 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 7 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Playa del Carmen or Tel Aviv somewhere new.