VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
Santa Claus Village in winter, Rovaniemi
RovaniemiSanta Claus Village in winter

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rovaniemi by Moskenes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or Rovaniemi?

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
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Rovaniemi for

  • wellness
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Rovaniemi’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, Rovaniemi 10: Puerto Vallarta leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Rovaniemi 25: Puerto Vallarta leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Rovaniemi 22: Puerto Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Rovaniemi 15: Puerto Vallarta leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Rovaniemi 78: Rovaniemi leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Rovaniemi 8: Puerto Vallarta leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Rovaniemi 72: Rovaniemi leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Rovaniemi 36: Puerto Vallarta leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Rovaniemi 18: Puerto Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Rovaniemi 18: Puerto Vallarta leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Rovaniemi 22: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Rovaniemi 60: Rovaniemi leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Rovaniemi.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Rovaniemi
32match

Wins on wellness and families 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

Rovaniemi in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
No seasea
22 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaRovaniemi

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.

Rovaniemi 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.

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. Rovaniemi: 2008-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rovaniemi Rautatieasema / Kuusela (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaRovaniemi
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFinnish, Swedish
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 m88 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsRovaniemi Airport (RVN)8 km from centre44 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaRovaniemi
City population224,16665,329
People per km²4,3119
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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