VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Penang?

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
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Penang for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Penang’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, Penang 44: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Penang 86: Penang leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Penang 70: Penang leads by 64 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Penang 40: Penang leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Penang 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Penang 42: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Penang 52: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Penang 40: Penang leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Penang 42: Penang leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Penang 78: Penang leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Penang 30: Penang leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Penang 42: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Penang.

Your match

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

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink 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

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaPenang

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. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaPenang
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaMalay
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation3 m4 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaPenang
City population1,301794,313
Museums within 10 km09
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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