VacationSelector
Vine rows before the snow-capped Andes in the Uco Valley, Mendoza
MendozaVine rows before the snow-capped Andes in the Uco Valley
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Mendoza by David, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Mendoza 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 Mendoza for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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. Mendoza 6, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Mendoza 68, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Mendoza leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Mendoza 30, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Mendoza leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Mendoza 40, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Mendoza leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mendoza 83, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Mendoza leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Mendoza 52, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Mendoza 42, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Mendoza 48, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Mendoza leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Mendoza 33, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Mendoza leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Mendoza 56, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Mendoza leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mendoza 33, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Mendoza leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mendoza and Nuevo Vallarta are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mendoza and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Mendoza
Best match
46match

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

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Mendoza in July

15 °Cdaytime high
2 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 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
MendozaNuevo 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. Mendoza: 1991-2020 normals, Mendoza Aerodrome (8.5 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMendozaNuevo Vallarta
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-6
Emergency number117 or 911911
Elevation769 m3 m
Main airportGovernor Francisco Gabrielli International Airport (MDZ)8 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMendozaNuevo Vallarta
City population127,1601,301
People per km²2,355-
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Mendoza 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). 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.