VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
The Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen or Zurich?

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
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Zurich for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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, Zurich 45: Playa del Carmen leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Zurich 53: Zurich leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Zurich 62: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Zurich 80: Zurich leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Zurich 76: Playa del Carmen leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Zurich 66: Zurich leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Zurich 3: Playa del Carmen leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Zurich 58: Zurich 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 Zurich.

Your match

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

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Zurich
Best match
63match

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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenZurich

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. Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenZurich
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation8 m408 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenZurich
City population304,942440,935
People per km²-5,016
Museums within 10 km063
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Playa del Carmen or Zurich 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.