VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • 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. Biarritz 68, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz and Puerto Vallarta are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Puerto Vallarta 28: Biarritz leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Puerto Vallarta 55: Biarritz leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Puerto Vallarta 45: Biarritz leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz and Puerto Vallarta are level on 42.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Puerto Vallarta 32: Biarritz leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Puerto Vallarta 52: Biarritz leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Biarritz
54match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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
BiarritzPuerto 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. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzPuerto Vallarta
Official languageFrenchSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m101 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzPuerto Vallarta
City population26,206224,166
People per km²2,2404,311
Museums within 10 km82
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz 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.