VacationSelector
The Petronas Twin Towers from KLCC Park, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala LumpurThe Petronas Twin Towers from KLCC Park
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Kuala Lumpur by Brownc, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kuala Lumpur 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 Kuala Lumpur for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Kuala Lumpur 12, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Kuala Lumpur 82, Puerto Vallarta 62: Kuala Lumpur leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Kuala Lumpur 57, Puerto Vallarta 28: Kuala Lumpur leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Kuala Lumpur 54, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kuala Lumpur 47, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Kuala Lumpur 52, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Kuala Lumpur 64, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Kuala Lumpur 57, Puerto Vallarta 45: Kuala Lumpur leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Kuala Lumpur 66, Puerto Vallarta 42: Kuala Lumpur leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Kuala Lumpur 75, Puerto Vallarta 60: Kuala Lumpur leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kuala Lumpur 42, Puerto Vallarta 32: Kuala Lumpur leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kuala Lumpur 44, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kuala Lumpur 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

Kuala Lumpur
54match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
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.

Kuala Lumpur in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
139 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
12 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
Kuala LumpurPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Kuala Lumpur's temperatures are measured 46 km from the centre, at Sepang/KL International Airport.

Kuala Lumpur 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. Kuala Lumpur: 1991-2020 normals, Sepang/KL International Airport (46.1 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureKuala LumpurPuerto Vallarta
Official languageMalaySpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number999911
Elevation50 m101 m
Main airportKuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL)45 km from centre146 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureKuala LumpurPuerto Vallarta
City population9,000,280224,166
People per km²36,9324,311
Museums within 10 km252
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 Kuala Lumpur 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.