VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or Santa Monica?

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 Monica for

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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 Monica 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Santa Monica 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Santa Monica 38: Puerto Vallarta leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Santa Monica 72: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Santa Monica 14: Puerto Vallarta leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Santa Monica 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Santa Monica.

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 Monica
51match

Wins on shopping and day trips 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 Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 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 VallartaSanta Monica

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 Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaSanta Monica
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 m32 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaSanta Monica
City population224,16693,076
People per km²4,3114,270
Museums within 10 km219
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 Santa Monica 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.