VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Orange Beach?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange Beach’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, Orange Beach 86: Orange Beach leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta and Orange Beach are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Orange Beach 7: Orange Beach leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Orange Beach 30: Orange Beach leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Orange Beach 60: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Orange Beach 50: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Orange Beach 75: Orange Beach leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Orange Beach 15: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Orange Beach 25: Orange Beach leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Orange Beach 38: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Orange Beach 32: Orange Beach leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Orange Beach 32: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Orange Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

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

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaOrange Beach

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.

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. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaOrange Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m4 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaOrange Beach
City population1,3018,095
People per km²-196
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Nuevo Vallarta or Orange Beach 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.