VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
The CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands, Toronto
TorontoThe CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Toronto by Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or Toronto?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Toronto for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Toronto’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, Toronto 34: Playa del Carmen leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Toronto 70: Toronto leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Toronto 50: Toronto leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Toronto 62: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Toronto 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Toronto 50: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Toronto 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Toronto 65: Toronto leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Toronto 66: Toronto leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Toronto 34: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Toronto 72: Toronto leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Toronto 33: Playa del Carmen leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Playa del Carmen and Toronto.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Toronto
55match

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

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Toronto in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenToronto

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. Toronto: 1991-2020 normals, Toronto City (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenToronto
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m76 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsToronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)20 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenToronto
City population304,9422,794,356
People per km²-4,434
Museums within 10 km032
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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