VacationSelector
A palm-lined Hollywood street with the Hollywood Sign behind, Los Angeles
Los AngelesA palm-lined Hollywood street with the Hollywood Sign behind
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Los Angeles by BenSherman, Public domain; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Los Angeles or Nuevo 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 Los Angeles for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Nuevo 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. Los Angeles 60, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Los Angeles leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Los Angeles leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Los Angeles leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Los Angeles leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Los Angeles leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Los Angeles leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles and Nuevo Vallarta are level on 25.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Los Angeles leads by 58 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Los Angeles leads by 65 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Los Angeles leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 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
Los AngelesNuevo Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Nuevo 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. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesNuevo 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
Elevation106 m3 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesNuevo Vallarta
City population3,898,7471,301
People per km²2,994-
Museums within 10 km390
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Angeles or Nuevo 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). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.