VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston 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 Charleston for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Charleston 72, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Puerto Vallarta 62: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Puerto Vallarta 28: Charleston leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Puerto Vallarta 55: Charleston leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Puerto Vallarta 45: Charleston leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Puerto Vallarta 42: Charleston leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Puerto Vallarta 32: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 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
CharlestonPuerto 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. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonPuerto Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m101 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonPuerto Vallarta
City population150,227224,166
People per km²5324,311
Museums within 10 km192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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