VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or San Diego?

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

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose San Diego for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: Puerto Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta and San Diego are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, San Diego 50: San Diego leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, San Diego 48: Puerto Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, San Diego 77: San Diego leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, San Diego 38: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, San Diego 44: San Diego leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, San Diego 26: Puerto Vallarta leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, San Diego 56: San Diego leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, San Diego 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

San Diego
56match

Wins on families 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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaSan Diego

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. San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaSan Diego
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation101 m129 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaSan Diego
City population224,1661,386,932
People per km²4,3111,438
Museums within 10 km226
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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