VacationSelector
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Florianopolis 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 Florianopolis for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • wellness

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. Florianopolis and Puerto Vallarta are level on 85.
Food & drink. Florianopolis 58, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Florianopolis 33, Puerto Vallarta 28: Florianopolis leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Florianopolis 60, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florianopolis 78, Puerto Vallarta 76: Florianopolis leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Florianopolis 50, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Florianopolis 60, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Florianopolis 28, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Florianopolis 33, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Florianopolis and Puerto Vallarta are level on 60.
Live music & performing arts. Florianopolis 28, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florianopolis 45, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florianopolis and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Florianopolis
52match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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

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
FlorianopolisPuerto 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. Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFlorianopolisPuerto 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 m101 m
Main airportHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorianopolisPuerto Vallarta
City population587,486224,166
People per km²8704,311
Museums within 10 km112
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 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.