VacationSelector
La Paz
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

La Paz 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 La Paz for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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. La Paz 3, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. La Paz 50, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. La Paz 52, Puerto Vallarta 28: La Paz leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. La Paz 38, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Paz 82, Puerto Vallarta 76: La Paz leads by 6 points.
Day trips. La Paz 40, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Good for families. La Paz 10, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 55 points.
Getting around. La Paz and Puerto Vallarta are level on 45.
Shopping & style. La Paz 45, Puerto Vallarta 42: La Paz leads by 3 points.
Affordability. La Paz 92, Puerto Vallarta 60: La Paz leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Paz 35, Puerto Vallarta 32: La Paz leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Paz 12, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Paz and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

La Paz
42match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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
La PazPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

La Paz 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.

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. La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLa PazPuerto Vallarta
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, GuaraniSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBoliviano (BOB)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAC50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation3,640 m101 m
Main airportEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa PazPuerto Vallarta
City population755,732224,166
People per km²1,6014,311
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 La Paz or Puerto Vallarta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.