VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Las Vegas 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 Las Vegas for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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. Las Vegas 10, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, Puerto Vallarta 62: Las Vegas leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, Puerto Vallarta 28: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, Puerto Vallarta 66: Las Vegas leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas 68, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, Puerto Vallarta 42: Las Vegas leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, Puerto Vallarta 32: Las Vegas leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 40, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Las Vegas and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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.

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasPuerto 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. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasPuerto Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation610 m101 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLas VegasPuerto Vallarta
City population641,903224,166
People per km²1,8434,311
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Las Vegas 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). 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.