VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or Santa Barbara?

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 Santa Barbara for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Barbara’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, Santa Barbara 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta and Santa Barbara are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Santa Barbara 48: Santa Barbara leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Santa Barbara 34: Puerto Vallarta leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Santa Barbara 80: Santa Barbara leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta and Santa Barbara are level on 55.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Santa Barbara 64: Puerto Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Santa Barbara 46: Santa Barbara leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Santa Barbara 45: Santa Barbara leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Santa Barbara 15: Puerto Vallarta leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
51match

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

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaSanta Barbara

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. Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaSanta Barbara
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 m15 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaSanta Barbara
City population224,16688,665
People per km²4,311816
Museums within 10 km210
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 Santa Barbara 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.