VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Ottawa?

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

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Ottawa’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, Ottawa 35: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Ottawa 45: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Ottawa 68: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Ottawa 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Ottawa 68: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Ottawa 40: Ottawa leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Ottawa 40: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta and Ottawa are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

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

Ottawa
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaOttawa

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. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaOttawa
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m70 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaOttawa
City population1,3011,017,449
People per km²-366
Museums within 10 km020
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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