VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Puerto Vallarta or Washington DC?

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
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Washington DC for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Puerto Vallarta leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Washington DC 57: Puerto Vallarta leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Washington DC 64: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Washington DC 28: Puerto Vallarta leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Washington DC 26: Puerto Vallarta leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Washington DC.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Washington DC
56match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaWashington DC

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. Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaWashington DC
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 m72 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaWashington DC
City population224,166689,545
People per km²4,3113,896
Museums within 10 km298
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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