VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Alicante or Punta Cana?

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 Alicante for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’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. Alicante 82, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Punta Cana 30: Alicante leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Punta Cana 8: Alicante leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Punta Cana 40: Alicante leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Punta Cana 52: Alicante leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Punta Cana 35: Alicante leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Alicante and Punta Cana are level on 68.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Punta Cana 15: Alicante leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Punta Cana 30: Alicante leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Punta Cana 44: Alicante leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Punta Cana 15: Alicante leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Punta Cana.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AlicantePunta Cana

Where the figures come from

Punta Cana 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. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicantePunta Cana
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m28 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicantePunta Cana
City population366,221138,919
People per km²1,819292
Museums within 10 km80
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Punta Cana 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.