VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
SofiaThe Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sofia by Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or Sofia?

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
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sofia for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Sofia’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, Sofia 5: Puerto Vallarta leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Sofia 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Sofia 60: Sofia leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Sofia 50: Puerto Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Sofia 80: Sofia leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Sofia 60: Sofia leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Sofia 40: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Sofia 65: Sofia leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Sofia 38: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Sofia 78: Sofia leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Sofia 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 Sofia.

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 families with your weighting.

Sofia
51match

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

Sofia in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
64 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaSofia

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. Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaSofia
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaBulgarian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation101 m560 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre97 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaSofia
City population224,1661,213,134
People per km²4,3112,466
Museums within 10 km242
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 Sofia 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.