VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Portland?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Portland for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Portland 68: Portland leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Portland 38: Portland leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Portland 52: Portland leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Portland 84: Portland leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta and Portland are level on 58.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Portland 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Portland 62: Portland leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Portland 52: Portland leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Portland 38: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Portland 55: Portland leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Portland 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 Portland.

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.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on getting around 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

Portland in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaPortland

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. Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaPortland
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m152 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaPortland
City population1,301652,503
People per km²-1,736
Museums within 10 km017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Portland 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.