VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Beijing 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 Beijing for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Beijing 6, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Puerto Vallarta 62: Beijing leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Puerto Vallarta 28: Beijing leads by 65 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Puerto Vallarta 55: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Puerto Vallarta 45: Beijing leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Puerto Vallarta 42: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Puerto Vallarta 60: Beijing leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Puerto Vallarta 32: Beijing leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Puerto Vallarta 52: Beijing leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

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

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
BeijingPuerto 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. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBeijingPuerto Vallarta
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation43 m101 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingPuerto Vallarta
City population21,893,095224,166
People per km²1,3344,311
Museums within 10 km832
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61
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 Beijing 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.