VacationSelector
The Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta
AtlantaThe Georgia State Capitol
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Atlanta by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Atlanta 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 Atlanta for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Atlanta 10, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Atlanta 68, Puerto Vallarta 62: Atlanta leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Atlanta 55, Puerto Vallarta 28: Atlanta leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Atlanta 65, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Atlanta 60, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Atlanta 52, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Atlanta 70, Puerto Vallarta 65: Atlanta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Atlanta 28, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Atlanta 50, Puerto Vallarta 42: Atlanta leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Atlanta 40, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Atlanta 62, Puerto Vallarta 32: Atlanta leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Atlanta 33, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Atlanta and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Atlanta
49match

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

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches 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.

Atlanta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
120 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 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
AtlantaPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Atlanta has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Atlanta: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Atlanta / Carroll Heights (12.5 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAtlantaPuerto Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation225 m101 m
Main airportHartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)14 km from centre238 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAtlantaPuerto Vallarta
City population498,715224,166
People per km²1,4334,311
Museums within 10 km272
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 Atlanta 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.