VacationSelector
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Macau 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 Macau for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

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. Macau 24, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Macau 77, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Macau leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Macau 62, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Macau leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Macau 40, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Macau leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Macau 5, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 70 points.
Day trips. Macau 52, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Macau 48, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Macau 60, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Macau leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Macau 58, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Macau leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Macau 44, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Macau 36, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Macau leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Macau 40, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Macau and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Macau
Best match
46match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Macau in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
281 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MacauNuevo 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. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMacauNuevo Vallarta
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard ChineseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPataca (MOP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number999911
Elevation22 m3 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMacauNuevo Vallarta
City population682,1001,301
People per km²5,916-
Museums within 10 km280
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Macau 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.