VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The British Columbia Parliament Buildings, Victoria
VictoriaThe British Columbia Parliament Buildings

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

Puerto Vallarta or Victoria?

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
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Victoria for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria’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, Victoria 28: Puerto Vallarta leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Victoria 50: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Victoria 42: Victoria leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Victoria 30: Puerto Vallarta leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Victoria 77: Victoria leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Victoria 54: Puerto Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Victoria 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Victoria 60: Victoria leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Victoria 40: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Victoria 34: Puerto Vallarta leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Victoria 40: Victoria leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Victoria 48: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Victoria.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Victoria
47match

Wins on getting around 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

Victoria in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaVictoria

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.

Victoria's sunshine is measured 87 km from the centre, at Vancouver International Airport.

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. Victoria: 1991-2020 normals, Victoria Gonzales CS (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaVictoria
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation101 m23 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsVictoria International Airport (YYJ)25 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaVictoria
City population224,16691,867
People per km²4,3114,711
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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