VacationSelector
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Florianopolis 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 Florianopolis for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • families
  • wellness
  • 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. Florianopolis 85, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Florianopolis leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Florianopolis 58, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Florianopolis leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Florianopolis 33, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Florianopolis leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Florianopolis 60, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Florianopolis leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florianopolis 78, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Florianopolis leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Florianopolis 50, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Florianopolis 60, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Florianopolis 28, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Florianopolis leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Florianopolis 33, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Florianopolis leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Florianopolis 60, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Florianopolis leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florianopolis 28, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Florianopolis leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florianopolis 45, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florianopolis and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Florianopolis
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on families 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.

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 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
FlorianopolisNuevo 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. Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFlorianopolisNuevo Vallarta
Official languagePortugueseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCN60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation3 m3 m
Main airportHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorianopolisNuevo Vallarta
City population587,4861,301
People per km²870-
Museums within 10 km110
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 Florianopolis 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.