VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Quito?

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 Quito for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Quito 54: Quito leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Quito 77: Quito leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Quito 40: Quito leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Quito 86: Quito leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Quito 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Quito 32: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Quito 45: Quito leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Quito 40: Quito leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Quito 78: Quito leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Quito 38: Quito leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Quito 44: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Quito.

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.

Quito
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaQuito

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.

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaQuito
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m2,850 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaQuito
City population1,3011,763,275
People per km²-4,735
Museums within 10 km016
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Quito 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.