VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Muscat 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 Muscat for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • families
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Muscat 72, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Muscat leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Muscat leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Muscat leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Muscat leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Muscat and Nuevo Vallarta are level on 45.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Muscat leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 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: Muscat and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Muscat
Best match
48match

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

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on families 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.

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
13 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
MuscatNuevo Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

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. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMuscatNuevo Vallarta
Official languageArabicSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-6
Emergency number968911
Elevation69 m3 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatNuevo Vallarta
City population1,421,4091,301
People per km²406-
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Muscat 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.