VacationSelector
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montevideo 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 Montevideo for

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

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Montevideo 55, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Montevideo 57, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Montevideo 54, Puerto Vallarta 28: Montevideo leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Montevideo 50, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montevideo 34, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Montevideo and Puerto Vallarta are level on 55.
Good for families. Montevideo 55, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Montevideo 54, Puerto Vallarta 45: Montevideo leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Montevideo 36, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Montevideo 42, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montevideo 57, Puerto Vallarta 32: Montevideo leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montevideo 38, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montevideo and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Montevideo
49match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 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
MontevideoPuerto 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. Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMontevideoPuerto Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation41 m101 m
Main airportCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontevideoPuerto Vallarta
City population1,302,954224,166
People per km²1,7854,311
Museums within 10 km362
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Montevideo 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). 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.