Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos are Mexico’s two best-known Pacific villa destinations, and they could hardly be more different. Puerto Vallarta is a real town on a green, mountainous bay, with cobbled streets and a strong local food scene. Los Cabos, at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, is desert meeting sea, built around resorts, golf and gated villa communities. Both have international airports with direct flights from the US and Canada. Here is how they compare for a villa stay.
The short answer
Choose Puerto Vallarta if you want a walkable town, jungle scenery, boat days to roadless beaches and generally more villa for the money. Choose Los Cabos if you want guaranteed sun, a polished resort scene, golf, and gated oceanfront estates such as Pedregal and Palmilla.
Landscape and feel
In Puerto Vallarta, the Sierra Madre drops straight into Banderas Bay, so the villa areas are steep, green hillsides with views across the water. The town itself, with the Malecón, the cathedral and the Romantic Zone, is the attraction as much as the beach.
Los Cabos is two towns, Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, joined by the Tourist Corridor, a coastline of resorts, golf courses and private communities. The scenery is desert, cactus and granite against very blue water, with the famous rock arch at Land’s End.
Beaches and swimming
Puerto Vallarta’s bay is generally calm for swimming, and the best beaches are the coves south of town, many reachable only by boat. In Los Cabos, the Pacific-facing beaches have powerful surf and strong currents and are not safe for swimming; swimmable beaches are on the Sea of Cortez side, such as Médano in Cabo San Lucas and the coves along the Corridor. If a swimmable beach at the villa matters, check this for any specific Cabo villa.
Weather
Los Cabos is the drier and sunnier of the two all year. Puerto Vallarta is dry and warm from November to April and has a real rainy season from June to October, with heavy afternoon storms. Both are in the eastern Pacific hurricane season from mid-May to the end of November. Humpback whales winter in both places, roughly December to March. See our month-by-month guide to Puerto Vallarta’s weather.
The villas
We list 42 villas in Puerto Vallarta, mostly hillside homes with bay views in Conchas Chinas and oceanfront and hillside villas along the South Shore, plus walkable homes in Amapas and the Romantic Zone. Large group houses are a strength: Villa Mandarinas has 16 bedrooms and Villa Savana 15.
In Los Cabos we list 106 villas, more than half of them in Pedregal, the gated hillside above Cabo San Lucas, with others in Palmilla, San José del Cabo and along the Corridor. Cabo villas tend to be newer and more contemporary in style, and the gated communities offer controlled access.
In both places, larger villas usually come with staff, and a private chef can often be arranged; see villas with a private chef.
Things to do
Puerto Vallarta is strongest for town life, food, boat trips to Yelapa and the south shore, snorkelling at Los Arcos and day trips into the mountains; see things to do in Puerto Vallarta. Los Cabos is strongest for golf, sport fishing, beach clubs, sailing to Land’s End and nightlife in Cabo San Lucas.
Cost
At a like-for-like size and standard, Puerto Vallarta villas generally cost less than those in Los Cabos, and Cabo’s top communities, such as Pedregal and Palmilla, are among the most expensive villa markets in Mexico. Rates in both depend heavily on dates: Christmas, New Year and Easter carry the highest rates and longest minimum stays.
Who suits which
- Families with young children: either works; in Cabo, choose a villa near a swimmable Sea of Cortez beach.
- Large multi-generational groups: Puerto Vallarta offers more very large houses for the money.
- Golf groups: Los Cabos.
- Couples who want a town to wander: Puerto Vallarta.
- Celebrations wanting a resort scene: Los Cabos.
If you are also weighing the gated peninsula at the north end of Banderas Bay, read Punta Mita vs Los Cabos, and for the quieter coast south of Vallarta, Costa Careyes vs Puerto Vallarta.
Send us your dates, group size and what you want from the trip, and we will shortlist villas in either destination.
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