VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

New York 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 New York for

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

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. New York 50, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, Puerto Vallarta 62: New York leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, Puerto Vallarta 28: New York leads by 61 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, Puerto Vallarta 66: New York leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Day trips. New York 68, Puerto Vallarta 55: New York leads by 13 points.
Good for families. New York 70, Puerto Vallarta 65: New York leads by 5 points.
Getting around. New York 82, Puerto Vallarta 45: New York leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, Puerto Vallarta 42: New York leads by 55 points.
Affordability. New York 12, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, Puerto Vallarta 32: New York leads by 67 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New York and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

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

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on prices 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.

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 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
New YorkPuerto 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. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkPuerto 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
Elevation25 m101 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkPuerto Vallarta
City population8,804,190224,166
People per km²7,2564,311
Museums within 10 km1572
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New York 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.