VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Salt Lake City?

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
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’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, Salt Lake City 12: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta and Salt Lake City are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Salt Lake City 42: Salt Lake City leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Salt Lake City 30: Salt Lake City leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Salt Lake City 34: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Salt Lake City 72: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Salt Lake City 42: Salt Lake City leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Salt Lake City 36: Salt Lake City leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Salt Lake City 40: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Salt Lake City 38: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Salt Lake City.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °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 VallartaSalt Lake City

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. Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaSalt Lake City
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m1,288 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaSalt Lake City
City population1,301199,723
People per km²-690
Museums within 10 km012
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 Salt Lake City 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.