VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Acapulco or Puerto Plata?

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 Acapulco for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’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. Acapulco and Puerto Plata are level on 80.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Puerto Plata 40: Acapulco leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Puerto Plata 38: Acapulco leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Acapulco and Puerto Plata are level on 30.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Puerto Plata 30: Acapulco leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Puerto Plata 64: Acapulco leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Puerto Plata 18: Acapulco leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Acapulco
44match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Puerto Plata has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoPuerto Plata
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m34 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoPuerto Plata
City population658,609-
People per km²350-
Museums within 10 km31
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Puerto Plata somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.