VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. Arequipa 8, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Puerto Vallarta 62: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Puerto Vallarta 28: Arequipa leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Puerto Vallarta 45: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Puerto Vallarta 42: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Puerto Vallarta 60: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Puerto Vallarta in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureArequipaPuerto Vallarta
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySol (PEN)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation2,335 m101 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaPuerto Vallarta
City population1,008,290224,166
People per km²1,5514,311
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Arequipa 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.