VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Gold Coast 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 Gold Coast for

  • families
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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. Gold Coast 92, Puerto Vallarta 85: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Puerto Vallarta 28: Puerto Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Puerto Vallarta 76: Gold Coast leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Puerto Vallarta 65: Gold Coast leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast and Puerto Vallarta are level on 45.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Gold Coast
52match

Wins on families and beaches 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.

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °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
Gold CoastPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

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. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastPuerto Vallarta
Official languageEnglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-6
Emergency number000911
Elevation12 m101 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastPuerto Vallarta
City population607,665224,166
People per km²4334,311
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Gold Coast 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.