VacationSelector
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

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

Nairobi 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 Nairobi for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • wellness

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. Nairobi 4, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Nairobi 48, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Nairobi 35, Puerto Vallarta 28: Nairobi leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Nairobi 58, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nairobi 84, Puerto Vallarta 76: Nairobi leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Nairobi 28, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Nairobi 55, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Nairobi 20, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Nairobi 45, Puerto Vallarta 42: Nairobi leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Nairobi and Puerto Vallarta are level on 60.
Live music & performing arts. Nairobi 35, Puerto Vallarta 32: Nairobi leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nairobi 25, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nairobi and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Nairobi
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 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
NairobiPuerto 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. Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureNairobiPuerto Vallarta
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999911
Elevation1,661 m101 m
Main airportJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureNairobiPuerto Vallarta
City population5,545,000224,166
People per km²7,9674,311
Museums within 10 km42
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 Nairobi 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. 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.