VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Tamarindo?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Tamarindo’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, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Tamarindo 38: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Tamarindo 5: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Tamarindo 28: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Tamarindo 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Tamarindo 18: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Tamarindo 36: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Tamarindo 10: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Tamarindo 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Tamarindo.

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.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on nightlife and getting around 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

Tamarindo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
129 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaTamarindo

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.

Tamarindo's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Liberia.

Tamarindo has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaTamarindo
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m27 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaTamarindo
City population1,3017,132
People per km²-57
Museums within 10 km00
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 Tamarindo 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.