VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Cebu or Nuevo 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 Cebu for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • families
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Nuevo 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. Cebu 60, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Cebu leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Cebu leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Cebu leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Cebu leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Cebu leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Cebu leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Cebu leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Cebu
Best match
48match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 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
CebuNuevo Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Nuevo 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. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCebuNuevo Vallarta
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation135 m3 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuNuevo Vallarta
City population965,3321,301
People per km²3,065-
Museums within 10 km50
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cebu or Nuevo 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). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.