VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
Victoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter, Victoria Falls
Victoria FallsVictoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter

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

Nuevo Vallarta or Victoria Falls?

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
  • families

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

Choose Victoria Falls for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria Falls’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, Victoria Falls 7: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Victoria Falls 24: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Victoria Falls 12: Victoria Falls leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Victoria Falls 8: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Victoria Falls 94: Victoria Falls leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Victoria Falls 22: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Victoria Falls 38: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Victoria Falls 45: Victoria Falls leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Victoria Falls 18: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Victoria Falls 32: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Victoria Falls 10: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Victoria Falls 34: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Victoria Falls.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Victoria Falls
29match

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

Victoria Falls in July

26 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaVictoria Falls

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. Victoria Falls: 1991-2020 normals, Livingstone (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaVictoria Falls
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, Xhosa, Ndau, Venda, Chewa, Khoisan, Kalanga, Shona, Tonga, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Northern Ndebele, Nambya, Zimbabwe Sign Language, Barwe
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Zimbabwe Gold (ZWG)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+2
Emergency number911999
Elevation3 m961 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsVictoria Falls International Airport (VFA)18 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaVictoria Falls
City population1,30133,060
Museums within 10 km02
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 Victoria Falls 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.