VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or Tampa?

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

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Tampa for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Tampa 57: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Tampa 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Tampa 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Tampa 54: Puerto Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Tampa 22: Puerto Vallarta leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Tampa 40: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Tampa 40: Puerto Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Tampa 30: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Tampa.

Your match

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

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and wellness with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaTampa

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. Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaTampa
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation101 m30 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaTampa
City population224,166384,959
People per km²4,311848
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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