VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Destin 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 Destin for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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. Destin 86, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Destin leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Destin leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Destin 14, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Destin leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Destin 36, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Destin leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Destin 20, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Destin 40, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Destin leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Destin 34, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Destin leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 33, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Destin and Nuevo 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

Destin
41match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Destin in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 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
DestinNuevo Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Destin 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.

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. Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDestinNuevo Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m3 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureDestinNuevo Vallarta
City population13,9311,301
People per km²636-
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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