VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Orange Beach or Puerto Vallarta?

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 Orange Beach for

  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange Beach’s own page.

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Vallarta’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. Orange Beach 86, Puerto Vallarta 85: Orange Beach leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Puerto Vallarta 28: Puerto Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Puerto Vallarta 65: Orange Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach and Puerto Vallarta are level on 32.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

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.

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Orange BeachPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Puerto 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. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachPuerto Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m101 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachPuerto Vallarta
City population8,095224,166
People per km²1964,311
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Orange Beach or Puerto Vallarta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.