VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
White sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach, Pensacola
PensacolaWhite sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Pensacola by Jason Meredith, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Pensacola?

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 Pensacola for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Pensacola’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 and Pensacola are level on 84.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Pensacola 45: Pensacola leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Pensacola 45: Pensacola leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Pensacola 42: Pensacola leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Pensacola 62: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Pensacola 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Pensacola 62: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Pensacola 18: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Pensacola 28: Pensacola leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Pensacola 44: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Pensacola 36: Pensacola leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Pensacola 30: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Pensacola.

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.

Pensacola
45match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife 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

Pensacola in July

33 °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 VallartaPensacola

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. Pensacola: 1991-2020 normals, Pensacola / Pleasant Grove (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaPensacola
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 m31 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)6 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaPensacola
City population1,30154,312
People per km²-515
Museums within 10 km05
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months7 months

Where else could you go?

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