VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Alta, Utah 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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

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. Alta, Utah 3, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Alta, Utah leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Alta, Utah leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
Best match
43match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahNuevo Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah 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.

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. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahNuevo Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,610 m3 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahNuevo Vallarta
City population2281,301
People per km²19-
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Nuevo Vallarta 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. 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.