VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Puerto Princesa?

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

  • day trips
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Princesa’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, Puerto Princesa 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Puerto Princesa 38: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Puerto Princesa 22: Puerto Princesa leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Puerto Princesa 26: Puerto Princesa leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Puerto Princesa 12: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Puerto Princesa 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Puerto Princesa 30: Puerto Princesa leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Puerto Princesa 20: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Puerto Princesa 78: Puerto Princesa leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Puerto Princesa 10: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Puerto Princesa 40: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Puerto Princesa.

Your match

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

Nuevo Vallarta
Best match
43match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaPuerto Princesa

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.

Puerto Princesa 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. Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaPuerto Princesa
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+8
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m98 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaPuerto Princesa
City population1,301316,384
People per km²-133
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Puerto Princesa 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. 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.