VacationSelector
Skiers at the foot of the slopes in the village, Copper Mountain
Copper MountainSkiers at the foot of the slopes in the village
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Copper Mountain by SparkFunElectronics, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Copper Mountain 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 Copper Mountain for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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. Copper Mountain 3, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Copper Mountain 20, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Copper Mountain 4, Puerto Vallarta 28: Puerto Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Copper Mountain 12, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Copper Mountain 90, Puerto Vallarta 76: Copper Mountain leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Copper Mountain and Puerto Vallarta are level on 55.
Good for families. Copper Mountain 62, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Copper Mountain 48, Puerto Vallarta 45: Copper Mountain leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Copper Mountain 8, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Copper Mountain 18, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Copper Mountain 8, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Copper Mountain 28, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Copper Mountain and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Copper Mountain
30match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches 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.

Copper Mountain in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Copper MountainPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Copper Mountain's temperatures are measured 35 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Copper Mountain has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Copper Mountain: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (35.2 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCopper MountainPuerto Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,955 m101 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)132 km from centre231 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCopper MountainPuerto Vallarta
City population650224,166
People per km²84,311
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Copper Mountain or Puerto Vallarta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.