VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • 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. Havana 64, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Puerto Vallarta 28: Havana leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Puerto Vallarta 32: Havana leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

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

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

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

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
HavanaPuerto 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.

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

Before you go

MeasureHavanaPuerto 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 m101 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaPuerto Vallarta
City population2,492,618224,166
People per km²3,4234,311
Museums within 10 km122
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 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.