VacationSelector
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Fort Lauderdale 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 Fort Lauderdale for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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. Fort Lauderdale 88, Puerto Vallarta 85: Fort Lauderdale leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Fort Lauderdale 47, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Fort Lauderdale and Puerto Vallarta are level on 28.
Nightlife. Fort Lauderdale 52, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fort Lauderdale 62, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Fort Lauderdale 58, Puerto Vallarta 55: Fort Lauderdale leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Fort Lauderdale 66, Puerto Vallarta 65: Fort Lauderdale leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Fort Lauderdale 32, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Fort Lauderdale 52, Puerto Vallarta 42: Fort Lauderdale leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Fort Lauderdale 32, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fort Lauderdale 42, Puerto Vallarta 32: Fort Lauderdale leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fort Lauderdale 40, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fort Lauderdale and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Fort Lauderdale
50match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fort Lauderdale in July

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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Fort LauderdalePuerto 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. Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFort LauderdalePuerto Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m101 m
Main airportFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureFort LauderdalePuerto Vallarta
City population182,760224,166
People per km²1,8294,311
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fort Lauderdale 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.