VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or Tokyo?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: Playa del Carmen leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 72 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Tokyo 68: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 61 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Tokyo 48: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 64 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Tokyo 78: Tokyo 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 Tokyo.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenTokyo

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. Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenTokyo
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaJapanese
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation8 m6 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenTokyo
City population304,94214,264,798
People per km²-6,501
Museums within 10 km0192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Tokyo 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.