VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
The arch at the entrance to the boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, MarylandThe arch at the entrance to the boardwalk

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Ocean City, Maryland by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Ocean City, Maryland?

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 Nuevo Vallarta for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Ocean City, Maryland for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocean City, Maryland’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. Nuevo Vallarta 84, Ocean City, Maryland 78: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta and Ocean City, Maryland are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Ocean City, Maryland 14: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Ocean City, Maryland 45: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Ocean City, Maryland 50: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Ocean City, Maryland 42: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Ocean City, Maryland 78: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Ocean City, Maryland 34: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Ocean City, Maryland 24: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Ocean City, Maryland 40: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta and Ocean City, Maryland are level on 18.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Ocean City, Maryland 22: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Ocean City, Maryland.

Your match

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

Nuevo Vallarta
Best match
43match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Ocean City, Maryland
40match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Nuevo Vallarta in July

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

Ocean City, Maryland in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaOcean City, Maryland

Where the figures come from

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.

Ocean City, Maryland 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Ocean City, Maryland: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Ocean City / Morris Mobile Home Park (10.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaOcean City, Maryland
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m2 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)39 km from centre4 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaOcean City, Maryland
City population1,3016,844
People per km²-73
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Nuevo Vallarta or Ocean City, Maryland somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.