VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or Shanghai?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Puerto Vallarta leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Shanghai 25: Puerto Vallarta leads by 51 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Shanghai 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaShanghai

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. Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaShanghai
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPutonghua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation101 m4 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaShanghai
City population224,16624,870,895
People per km²4,3113,922
Museums within 10 km245
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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