VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Puerto Vallarta or Reykjavik?

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 Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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 Vallarta 85, Reykjavik 12: Puerto Vallarta leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Reykjavik 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Reykjavik 25: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Reykjavik 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Reykjavik 35: Puerto Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Reykjavik 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Reykjavik 55: Reykjavik leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Reykjavik 25: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Reykjavik 6: Puerto Vallarta leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Reykjavik.

Your match

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

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaReykjavik

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. Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaReykjavik
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaIcelandic
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC
Emergency number911112
Elevation101 m8 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaReykjavik
City population224,166138,772
People per km²4,311569
Museums within 10 km223
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.