VacationSelector
The old town on the Neckar, Heidelberg
HeidelbergThe old town on the Neckar
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Heidelberg by Kuanling Chen, Pexels License; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Heidelberg 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 Heidelberg for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Heidelberg 7, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Heidelberg and Nuevo Vallarta are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Heidelberg 58, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Heidelberg leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Heidelberg 38, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Heidelberg leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Heidelberg 60, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Heidelberg 78, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Heidelberg leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Heidelberg 62, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Heidelberg 72, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Heidelberg leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Heidelberg 40, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Heidelberg leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Heidelberg 42, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Heidelberg 48, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Heidelberg leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Heidelberg 44, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Heidelberg and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Heidelberg
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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.

Heidelberg in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HeidelbergNuevo 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. Heidelberg: 1991-2020 normals, Heidelberg (4.5 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHeidelbergNuevo Vallarta
Official languageGermanSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation114 m3 m
Main airportFrankfurt Main Airport (FRA)69 km from centre281 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHeidelbergNuevo Vallarta
City population156,0921,301
People per km²1,433-
Museums within 10 km170
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Heidelberg 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.