VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Alicante or Nuevo 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 Alicante for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Nuevo 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. Alicante 82, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Alicante leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Alicante leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Alicante leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Alicante leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Alicante leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Alicante leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Alicante leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Alicante leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 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
AlicanteNuevo Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Nuevo 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. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteNuevo Vallarta
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m3 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteNuevo Vallarta
City population366,2211,301
People per km²1,819-
Museums within 10 km80
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Nuevo 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.