VacationSelector
The Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens, Adelaide
AdelaideThe Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Adelaide by Ardash Muradian, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Adelaide or Puerto Vallarta?

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 Adelaide for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Adelaide’s own page.

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Vallarta’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. Adelaide 68, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Adelaide 72, Puerto Vallarta 62: Adelaide leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Adelaide 48, Puerto Vallarta 28: Adelaide leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Adelaide 42, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Adelaide 66, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Adelaide 60, Puerto Vallarta 55: Adelaide leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Adelaide 70, Puerto Vallarta 65: Adelaide leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Adelaide 57, Puerto Vallarta 45: Adelaide leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Adelaide 44, Puerto Vallarta 42: Adelaide leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Adelaide 40, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Adelaide 63, Puerto Vallarta 32: Adelaide leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Adelaide 42, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Adelaide and Puerto Vallarta.

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

Adelaide
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Adelaide in July

16 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
72 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AdelaidePuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Puerto Vallarta 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. Adelaide: 1991-2020 normals, Adelaide (West Terrace / ngayirdapira) (3.1 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAdelaidePuerto Vallarta
Official languageEnglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9:30, UTC+10:30 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number000911
Elevation1 m101 m
Main airportAdelaide International Airport (ADL)6 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAdelaidePuerto Vallarta
City population1,387,290224,166
People per km²1,0714,311
Museums within 10 km132
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Adelaide or Puerto Vallarta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.