VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Queenstown?

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
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Queenstown’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, Queenstown 20: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Queenstown 12: Queenstown leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Queenstown 50: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Queenstown 60: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Queenstown 28: Queenstown leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Queenstown 20: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Queenstown 14: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Queenstown 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 Queenstown.

Your match

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

Nuevo Vallarta
Best match
43match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors 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

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No seasea
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaQueenstown

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.

Queenstown 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. Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaQueenstown
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation3 m324 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaQueenstown
City population1,30129,000
Museums within 10 km00
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 Queenstown 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.