VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Puerto Vallarta or Siem Reap?

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
  • families

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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, Siem Reap 5: Puerto Vallarta leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Siem Reap 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Siem Reap 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Siem Reap 40: Puerto Vallarta leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta and Siem Reap are level on 55.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Siem Reap 35: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Siem Reap 30: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Siem Reap 38: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta and Siem Reap are level on 32.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Siem Reap
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaSiem Reap

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.

Siem Reap 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. Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaSiem Reap
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaKhmer
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation101 m18 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaSiem Reap
City population224,166147,866
People per km²4,311-
Museums within 10 km26
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 Siem Reap 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. 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.