VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

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

Playa del Carmen or Vancouver?

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
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Playa del Carmen leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Vancouver 42: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Vancouver 45: Playa del Carmen leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Vancouver 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Vancouver 27: Playa del Carmen leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Vancouver 52: Vancouver leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Vancouver 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 Vancouver.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Vancouver
56match

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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenVancouver

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. Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenVancouver
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m2 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenVancouver
City population304,942662,248
People per km²-5,759
Museums within 10 km026
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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