VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Alicante or Santo Domingo?

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

  • day trips
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’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, Santo Domingo 58: Alicante leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Santo Domingo 58: Alicante leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Santo Domingo 64: Santo Domingo leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Santo Domingo 36: Alicante leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Santo Domingo 44: Alicante leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Santo Domingo 40: Alicante leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Santo Domingo 40: Alicante leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante and Santo Domingo are level on 44.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Santo Domingo 46: Santo Domingo leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Santo Domingo 22: Alicante leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Santo Domingo
49match

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.

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

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteSanto Domingo

Where the figures come from

Santo Domingo 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). Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteSanto Domingo
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 m14 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteSanto Domingo
City population366,2212,201,941
People per km²1,8191,691
Museums within 10 km810
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Santo Domingo 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.