VacationSelector
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Myrtle Beach 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 Myrtle Beach for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • 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. Myrtle Beach and Nuevo Vallarta are level on 84.
Food & drink. Myrtle Beach 38, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Myrtle Beach 20, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Myrtle Beach leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Myrtle Beach 42, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Myrtle Beach leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Myrtle Beach 46, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Myrtle Beach 50, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Myrtle Beach 80, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Myrtle Beach leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Myrtle Beach 18, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Myrtle Beach 38, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Myrtle Beach leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Myrtle Beach 52, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Myrtle Beach leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Myrtle Beach 30, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Myrtle Beach leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Myrtle Beach 28, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Myrtle Beach and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Myrtle BeachNuevo Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMyrtle BeachNuevo Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m3 m
Main airportMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMyrtle BeachNuevo Vallarta
City population35,6821,301
People per km²591-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Myrtle Beach 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). 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. 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. 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.