VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or Scottsdale?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Scottsdale for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Puerto Vallarta leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Scottsdale 46: Puerto Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Scottsdale 38: Scottsdale leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Scottsdale 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Scottsdale 68: Puerto Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Scottsdale 50: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Scottsdale 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Scottsdale 20: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Scottsdale 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Scottsdale 40: Scottsdale leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Scottsdale.

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.

Scottsdale
46match

Wins on wellness and shopping 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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaScottsdale

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. Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaScottsdale
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation101 m380 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaScottsdale
City population224,166241,361
People per km²4,311-
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Scottsdale 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.