VacationSelector
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Manchester 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 Manchester for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Manchester 9, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Manchester 51, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Manchester 50, Puerto Vallarta 28: Manchester leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Manchester 72, Puerto Vallarta 66: Manchester leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manchester 64, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Manchester 77, Puerto Vallarta 55: Manchester leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Manchester 58, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Manchester 68, Puerto Vallarta 45: Manchester leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Manchester 62, Puerto Vallarta 42: Manchester leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Manchester 42, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manchester 74, Puerto Vallarta 32: Manchester leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manchester 15, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manchester and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Manchester
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
56match

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.

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 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
ManchesterPuerto 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. Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureManchesterPuerto Vallarta
Official languageEnglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation38 m101 m
Main airportManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureManchesterPuerto Vallarta
City population547,627224,166
People per km²4,7374,311
Museums within 10 km282
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Manchester 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.