VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
A chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain, Whistler
WhistlerA chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Whistler by Ruth Hartnup, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Whistler?

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 Whistler for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Whistler’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, Whistler 30: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta and Whistler are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Whistler 20: Whistler leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Whistler 42: Whistler leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Whistler 97: Whistler leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Whistler 30: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Whistler 68: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Whistler 30: Whistler leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Whistler 12: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Whistler 15: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Whistler 60: Whistler leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Whistler.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Whistler
43match

Wins on getting around and nightlife 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

Whistler in July

25 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaWhistler

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.

Whistler 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. Whistler: 1991-2020 normals, Whistler - Nesters (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaWhistler
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m670 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)104 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaWhistler
City population1,30113,982
People per km²-58
Museums within 10 km01
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 Whistler 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.