VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

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. Havana 64, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Havana and Nuevo Vallarta are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Havana leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Havana leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 39 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Havana leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Havana leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Havana leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Havana leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Havana
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 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
HavanaNuevo Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Havana has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHavanaNuevo Vallarta
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105911
Elevation59 m3 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaNuevo Vallarta
City population2,492,6181,301
People per km²3,423-
Museums within 10 km120
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 Havana 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). 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.