VacationSelector
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Philadelphia 36, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Philadelphia and Puerto Vallarta are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Philadelphia 72, Puerto Vallarta 28: Philadelphia leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Philadelphia 55, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Philadelphia 52, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Philadelphia 80, Puerto Vallarta 55: Philadelphia leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Philadelphia 68, Puerto Vallarta 65: Philadelphia leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Philadelphia 66, Puerto Vallarta 45: Philadelphia leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Philadelphia 57, Puerto Vallarta 42: Philadelphia leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Philadelphia 40, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Philadelphia 72, Puerto Vallarta 32: Philadelphia leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Philadelphia 26, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Philadelphia and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Philadelphia
57match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PhiladelphiaPuerto 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. Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePhiladelphiaPuerto 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
Elevation12 m101 m
Main airportPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhiladelphiaPuerto Vallarta
City population1,603,797224,166
People per km²4,3394,311
Museums within 10 km542
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Philadelphia 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.