VacationSelector
The white temple of Wat Kaew Korawaram in Krabi Town, Krabi
KrabiThe white temple of Wat Kaew Korawaram in Krabi Town
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Krabi by Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Krabi 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 Krabi for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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. Krabi 87, Puerto Vallarta 85: Krabi leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Krabi 50, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Krabi 20, Puerto Vallarta 28: Puerto Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Krabi 33, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Krabi 85, Puerto Vallarta 76: Krabi leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Krabi 40, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Krabi 55, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Krabi 30, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Krabi 20, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Krabi 78, Puerto Vallarta 60: Krabi leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Krabi 12, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Krabi 72, Puerto Vallarta 52: Krabi leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Krabi and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Krabi
49match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Krabi in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
212 mmrain in the month
30 °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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KrabiPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Krabi's temperatures are measured 67 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Krabi 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. Krabi: 1991-2020 normals, Phuket Airport (66.6 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureKrabiPuerto Vallarta
Official languageThaiSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBaht (THB)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation16 m101 m
Main airportKrabi International Airport (KBV)9 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureKrabiPuerto Vallarta
City population30,499224,166
People per km²-4,311
Museums within 10 km02
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 Krabi 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.