VacationSelector
Cinderella Castle, Magic Kingdom, Orlando
OrlandoCinderella Castle, Magic Kingdom
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Orlando by Michael Gray, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Orlando 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 Orlando for

  • families
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Orlando 42, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Orlando 48, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Orlando 22, Puerto Vallarta 28: Puerto Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Orlando 40, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orlando 46, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Orlando 58, Puerto Vallarta 55: Orlando leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Orlando 98, Puerto Vallarta 65: Orlando leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Orlando 8, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Orlando 58, Puerto Vallarta 42: Orlando leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Orlando 36, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orlando 40, Puerto Vallarta 32: Orlando leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orlando 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: Orlando and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Orlando
44match

Wins on families and shopping with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches 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.

Orlando in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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
OrlandoPuerto 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. Orlando: 1991-2020 normals, Orlando Airport (14.2 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureOrlandoPuerto Vallarta
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation34 m101 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)14 km from centre169 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrlandoPuerto Vallarta
City population334,854224,166
People per km²1,0864,311
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Orlando 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.