How far is Cancun from Playa del Carmen? Here's the quick answer if you drive this relatively short distance without making any stops.
Nonstop drive: 43 miles or 69 km
Driving time: 1 hour, 6 minutes
Even though you can drive this distance straight through, it might be more interesting to stop along the way. You can scroll down to calculate how many hours it would take if you drive with stops.
Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Playa del Carmen, Mexico and Cancun, Mexico. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.
Flight distance: 39 miles or 63 km
Flight time: 35 minutes
The straight line flight distance is 4 miles less than driving on roads, which means the driving distance is roughly 1.1x of the flight distance.
Your plane flies much faster than a car, so the flight time is about 1/2th of the time it would take to drive.
This is a relatively short flight in a private plane, but you might be planning to book a commercial flight. In that case, your travel time would really need to include how many minutes to get to your local airport, wait for security, board and taxi on the runway, land at the other airport, and get to your destination.
Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Cancun, and you want to stop on the way to explore. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting places along the way, or maybe eat at a great restaurant. That's what Trippy is perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.
Road trip: 1 day of driving
With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.
Travel time: 1.5 hours on the road
Itinerary
Start in Playa del Carmen.
Drive for about 21 minutes, then stop at Belmond Maroma Resort & Spa and stay for about 1 hour.
Next, drive for another 14 minutes then stop in Puerto Morelos and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 15 minutes then stop at Zoëtry Paraiso de la Bonita Riviera Maya and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 12 minutes then stop at Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 11 minutes then stop at Aeropuerto Internacional de Cancun and stay for 1 hour.
Finally, drive for about 16 minutes and arrive in Cancun.
To see all the details on this itinerary, including recommended restaurants, hotels, and things to do along the way, check out the full road trip planner:
Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Cancun, Mexico. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Cancun. Trippy has an entire Q&A community where you can post questions and get answers from expert travelers or locals who know the area. For instance, you might be interested in the answers to this question: Driving from Cancun airport to Playa del Carmen, any restaurant recommend?. Check out some of the questions people have asked about Cancun like What are the most popular areas to stay in Cancun?. Click the button below to explore Cancun in detail.
The distance is the same either way if you're flying a straight line (or driving the same roads back and forth). But for a real trip, there can be plenty of differences so go ahead and check the reverse directions to get the distance from Cancun to Playa del Carmen, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.
If you happen to know Playa del Carmen, don't forget to help other travelers and answer some questions about Playa del Carmen!
More info on this route:
drive from Playa del Carmen to Cancun
road conditions
alternate routes
Google driving directions