VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or Riga?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Riga for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Puerto Vallarta leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Riga 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Riga 66: Riga leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Riga 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Riga 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Riga 60: Riga leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Riga 50: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Riga 68: Riga leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Riga 45: Riga leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Riga 62: Riga leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Riga 65: Riga leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Riga 50: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Riga.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Puerto Vallarta
56match

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

Riga
55match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaRiga

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. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaRiga
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaLatvian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation101 m6 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaRiga
City population224,166588,911
People per km²4,311-
Museums within 10 km212
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 Riga 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.