VacationSelector
The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, Catania
CataniaThe Cathedral of Sant'Agata
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Catania by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Catania 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 Catania for

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

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • wellness
  • families
  • 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. Catania 72, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Catania 77, Puerto Vallarta 62: Catania leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Catania 62, Puerto Vallarta 28: Catania leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Catania 60, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Catania 83, Puerto Vallarta 76: Catania leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Catania 84, Puerto Vallarta 55: Catania leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Catania 50, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Catania 48, Puerto Vallarta 45: Catania leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Catania and Puerto Vallarta are level on 42.
Affordability. Catania and Puerto Vallarta are level on 60.
Live music & performing arts. Catania 55, Puerto Vallarta 32: Catania leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Catania 30, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Catania and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Catania
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Catania in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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
CataniaPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Catania's sunshine is measured 88 km from the centre, at Messina.

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. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Fontanarossa (5.2 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCataniaPuerto Vallarta
Official languageItalianSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m101 m
Main airportCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre96 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCataniaPuerto Vallarta
City population311,584224,166
People per km²1,7044,311
Museums within 10 km252
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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