VacationSelector
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Malaga 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 Malaga for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • prices

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. Malaga 77, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Malaga 68, Puerto Vallarta 62: Malaga leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Malaga 65, Puerto Vallarta 28: Malaga leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Malaga 62, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Malaga 73, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Malaga 87, Puerto Vallarta 55: Malaga leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Malaga 70, Puerto Vallarta 65: Malaga leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Malaga 70, Puerto Vallarta 45: Malaga leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Malaga 55, Puerto Vallarta 42: Malaga leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Malaga 55, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Malaga 45, Puerto Vallarta 32: Malaga leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Malaga 42, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Malaga and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Malaga
Best match
64match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on wellness 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.

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MalagaPuerto 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. Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMalagaPuerto 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
Elevation18 m101 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMalagaPuerto Vallarta
City population599,063224,166
People per km²1,5174,311
Museums within 10 km322
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Malaga 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). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.