VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • beaches

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. Barcelona 75, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Puerto Vallarta 62: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Puerto Vallarta 28: Barcelona leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Puerto Vallarta 66: Barcelona leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Puerto Vallarta 55: Barcelona leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Puerto Vallarta 65: Barcelona leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Puerto Vallarta 45: Barcelona leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Puerto Vallarta 42: Barcelona leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Puerto Vallarta 32: Barcelona leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

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

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 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
BarcelonaPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaPuerto 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
Elevation9 m101 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaPuerto Vallarta
City population1,731,649224,166
People per km²17,0944,311
Museums within 10 km952
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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. 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.