WorldMexico › Quintana Roo › Playa Delphine

Playa Delphine 33.3

#5161 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇲🇽 Mexico · Quintana Roo · near Cancún

Wind is the enemy here, boardshorts water, gentle enough to learn.

Warm waterBeginner friendlyBeginner
Playa Delphine, Mexico
Photo: Alfonzo Buscemi · CC BY 3.0 · source
Surf score33.3 /100
Surfable days60% of the year
Clean days0% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell0% period 11 s+
Typical size0.7 m 2.2 ft median
Water28°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Playa Delphine

It rarely works. The nearest airport is CUN (13 km) and the nearest town is Cancún (11 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan77%0%0.8 m27°Cboardies
Feb89%0%0.8 m26°Cboardies
Mar75%0%0.8 m27°Cboardies
Apr74%0%0.7 m27°Cboardies
May75%0%0.7 m28°Cboardies
Jun71%0%0.7 m29°Cboardies
Jul41%0%0.6 m29°Cboardies
Aug37%0%0.6 m30°Cboardies
Sep31%0%0.5 m30°Cboardies
Oct38%0%0.5 m30°Cboardies
Nov49%0%0.6 m29°Cboardies
Dec67%0%0.7 m28°Cboardies

What is under Playa Delphine

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 19 m.

Depth 8 km out19 m
Depth 4 km out14 m

Measured, not estimated: NOAA ETOPO 2022 global relief at 15 arc-seconds, about 460 m per cell, sampled along this spot’s own swell window. At that scale the survey sees passes and channels; it cannot see a reef ledge, so nothing here is said about how the wave breaks.

Why 33.3

Seven parts, each normalised 0 to 1 and multiplied by its weight; the sum is scaled so the best spot in the world scores 100. Wave quality and what the spot does on its best days carry more than half of it, which is what separates this from a ranking of where the water is warm.

Wave quality 34.7%
6.8
Best days 22.4%
2.6
Clean days 18.4%
0.0
Consistency 10.2%
6.9
Season spread 4.1%
2.2
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
4.1

The detail

Faces 100° with 58% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 16% of days. Mean peak period 6.3 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.1 m, with a peak period of 7 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 88%. Months that work: 7 of 12. Coordinates 21.095, -86.764 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,510/ month
typically €1,330 – €1,690
Rent, one bedroom€793
Groceries€320
Eating out€184
Getting around€105
Phone + internet€111
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€2,950/ month
typically €2,600 – €3,310
Somewhere to stay€1,740
Eating out€621
Car, transfers, fuel€400
Data + extras€191
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Airport and town on the doorstep, so the local estimate is 23% above the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Mexico (2025, United States = 1.00) applied to a fixed surfer basket, then adjusted for how remote the spot is. Your own number moves with the season and how you live.

Our own project · Sumba, Indonesia
Own a cabin on a surf coast in Sumba

Sumba has eight spots in this ranking, the best of them inside the world top 50. A cabin is €11,500. The land it sits on is separate, from €6,500 (€9,950 oceanfront), on an 80-year lease that extends at the end. Water, septic and electricity are another €6,500, and furniture is on top, so a finished cabin lands around €28,000 plus the land, payable in instalments.

Eco Beach City is run by the same people as SurfRanking, so treat this as our own advert, not a recommendation. It is an off-plan property in Indonesia: take your own legal and financial advice before paying anything.

Spots nearby

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