VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
Mountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola, Telluride
TellurideMountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Telluride by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Telluride?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Telluride for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Telluride’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, Telluride 5: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Telluride 38: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Telluride 20: Telluride leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Telluride 20: Telluride leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Telluride 93: Telluride leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Telluride 30: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Telluride 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Telluride 66: Telluride leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Telluride 25: Telluride leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Telluride 7: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Telluride 35: Telluride leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Telluride 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 Telluride.

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.

Telluride
36match

Wins on getting around 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

Telluride in July

23 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
58 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 VallartaTelluride

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.

Telluride 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. Telluride: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Telluride / Lime (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaTelluride
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 m2,667 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsMontrose Regional Airport (MTJ)64 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaTelluride
City population1,3012,607
People per km²-1,372
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 Telluride 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.