VacationSelector
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Fukuoka 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 Fukuoka for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Fukuoka 50, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Fukuoka 82, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Fukuoka leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Fukuoka 50, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Fukuoka leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Fukuoka 60, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Fukuoka leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fukuoka 62, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Fukuoka 84, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Fukuoka leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Fukuoka 78, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Fukuoka leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Fukuoka 82, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Fukuoka leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Fukuoka 65, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Fukuoka leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Fukuoka 58, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Fukuoka leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fukuoka 45, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Fukuoka leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fukuoka 60, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Fukuoka leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fukuoka and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Fukuoka
Best match
65match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on beaches 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.

Fukuoka in July

31 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
301 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
FukuokaNuevo 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. Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFukuokaNuevo Vallarta
Official languageJapaneseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyYen (JPY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation8 m3 m
Main airportFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureFukuokaNuevo Vallarta
City population1,603,0431,301
People per km²4,715-
Museums within 10 km230
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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