VacationSelector
The skyline across the water with the Chugach Mountains behind, Anchorage
AnchorageThe skyline across the water with the Chugach Mountains behind
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Anchorage by Frank K., CC BY 2.0, cropped; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Anchorage 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 Anchorage for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • wellness

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. Anchorage 8, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Anchorage and Nuevo Vallarta are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Anchorage 35, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Anchorage leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Anchorage 30, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Anchorage leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Anchorage 93, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Anchorage leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Anchorage 33, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Anchorage 55, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Anchorage 22, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Anchorage 28, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Anchorage leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Anchorage 28, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Anchorage 34, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Anchorage leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Anchorage 32, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Anchorage and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Anchorage
37match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
Best match
43match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Anchorage in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
47 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
18 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
AnchorageNuevo 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. Anchorage: 1991-2020 normals, Anchorage Air Force Base (7 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAnchorageNuevo Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-9, UTC-8 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation31 m3 m
Main airportTed Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)7 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnchorageNuevo Vallarta
City population291,2471,301
People per km²58-
Museums within 10 km50
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Anchorage 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). 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.