VacationSelector
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Puerto Plata 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 Puerto Plata for

  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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. Puerto Plata 80, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Plata 40, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Plata 35, Puerto Vallarta 28: Puerto Plata leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Plata 38, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Plata 68, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Puerto Plata 48, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Puerto Plata 57, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Puerto Plata 30, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Plata 30, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Puerto Plata 64, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Plata leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Plata 18, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Plata 35, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Plata and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 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
Puerto PlataPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Puerto Plata 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.

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. Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PlataPuerto Vallarta
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation34 m101 m
Main airportGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PlataPuerto Vallarta
City population-224,166
People per km²-4,311
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Puerto Plata 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.