VacationSelector
The Cloth Hall on the Main Square, Krakow
KrakowThe Cloth Hall on the Main Square
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Krakow by Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Krakow 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 Krakow for

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

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Krakow 9, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Krakow 55, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Krakow 77, Puerto Vallarta 28: Krakow leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Krakow 68, Puerto Vallarta 66: Krakow leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Krakow 62, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Krakow 76, Puerto Vallarta 55: Krakow leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Krakow 58, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Krakow 74, Puerto Vallarta 45: Krakow leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Krakow 48, Puerto Vallarta 42: Krakow leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Krakow 72, Puerto Vallarta 60: Krakow leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Krakow 55, Puerto Vallarta 32: Krakow leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Krakow 36, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Krakow and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Krakow
58match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Krakow in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
100 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 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
KrakowPuerto 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. Krakow: 1991-2020 normals, Krakow (10.1 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureKrakowPuerto Vallarta
Official languagePolishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyZloty (PLN)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation219 m101 m
Main airportKraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK)11 km from centre132 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureKrakowPuerto Vallarta
City population804,237224,166
People per km²2,4594,311
Museums within 10 km1132
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 Krakow 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.