VacationSelector
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Monaco 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 Monaco for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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. Monaco 68, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Monaco 57, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Monaco 55, Puerto Vallarta 28: Monaco leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Monaco 48, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Monaco 70, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Monaco 84, Puerto Vallarta 55: Monaco leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Monaco 60, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Monaco 78, Puerto Vallarta 45: Monaco leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Monaco 52, Puerto Vallarta 42: Monaco leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Monaco 3, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Monaco 63, Puerto Vallarta 32: Monaco leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Monaco 55, Puerto Vallarta 52: Monaco leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Monaco 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

Monaco
58match

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

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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
MonacoPuerto 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. Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMonacoPuerto Vallarta
Official languageFrenchSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCEF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation68 m101 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMonacoPuerto Vallarta
City population38,857224,166
People per km²18,5034,311
Museums within 10 km142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Monaco or Puerto Vallarta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.