VacationSelector
The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta
JakartaThe Istiqlal Mosque
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Jakarta by Antonyus Bunjamin, Pexels License; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Jakarta 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 Jakarta for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Jakarta 28, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Jakarta 78, Puerto Vallarta 62: Jakarta leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Jakarta 48, Puerto Vallarta 28: Jakarta leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Jakarta and Puerto Vallarta are level on 66.
Nature & outdoors. Jakarta 30, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Jakarta 45, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Jakarta 50, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Jakarta 36, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Jakarta 64, Puerto Vallarta 42: Jakarta leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Jakarta 80, Puerto Vallarta 60: Jakarta leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Jakarta 42, Puerto Vallarta 32: Jakarta leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Jakarta 46, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Jakarta and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Jakarta
51match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

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.

Jakarta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
12 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
JakartaPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

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. Jakarta: 1991-2020 normals, Jakarta / Observatory (1.1 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureJakartaPuerto Vallarta
Official languageIndonesianSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyRupiah (IDR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation91 m101 m
Main airportSoekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)20 km from centre89 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureJakartaPuerto Vallarta
City population11,135,191224,166
People per km²16,8214,311
Museums within 10 km442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Jakarta 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.