VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Faro 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 Faro for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • 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. Faro 74, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Puerto Vallarta 28: Faro leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Puerto Vallarta 55: Faro leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Puerto Vallarta 45: Faro leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Faro and Puerto Vallarta are level on 60.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Faro
49match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on nightlife and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 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
FaroPuerto 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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFaroPuerto Vallarta
Official languagePortugueseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m101 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroPuerto Vallarta
City population64,560224,166
People per km²3194,311
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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