VacationSelector
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Macau 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 Macau for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Macau 24, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Macau 77, Puerto Vallarta 62: Macau leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Macau 62, Puerto Vallarta 28: Macau leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Macau 40, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Macau 5, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 71 points.
Day trips. Macau 52, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Macau 48, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Macau 60, Puerto Vallarta 45: Macau leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Macau 58, Puerto Vallarta 42: Macau leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Macau 44, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Macau 36, Puerto Vallarta 32: Macau leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Macau 40, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Macau and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Macau
46match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

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

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 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
MacauPuerto 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. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMacauPuerto 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 m101 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMacauPuerto Vallarta
City population682,100224,166
People per km²5,9164,311
Museums within 10 km282
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 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). 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.