VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or San Jose?

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 San Jose for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 Jose 30: Puerto Vallarta leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, San Jose 56: Puerto Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, San Jose 36: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, San Jose 33: Puerto Vallarta leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, San Jose 72: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta and San Jose are level on 65.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, San Jose 30: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, San Jose 20: Puerto Vallarta leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, San Jose 30: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
0255075100

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

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.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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 Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaSan Jose

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 Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaSan Jose
City population224,1661,013,240
People per km²4,3112,167
Museums within 10 km219
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 San Jose 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.