VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Madrid 5, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Madrid leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Madrid leads by 80 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Madrid leads by 69 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Madrid leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Madrid leads by 59 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Madrid leads by 53 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Madrid leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Madrid leads by 59 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MadridNuevo 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. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMadridNuevo Vallarta
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m3 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridNuevo Vallarta
City population3,506,7301,301
People per km²5,801-
Museums within 10 km880
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 Madrid 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.