VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or La Romana?

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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose La Romana for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on La Romana’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. Antigua Guatemala 6, La Romana 84: La Romana leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, La Romana 38: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, La Romana 24: Antigua Guatemala leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, La Romana 30: Antigua Guatemala leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, La Romana 62: Antigua Guatemala leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, La Romana 52: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, La Romana 56: La Romana leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, La Romana 24: Antigua Guatemala leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, La Romana 28: Antigua Guatemala leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, La Romana 50: Antigua Guatemala leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, La Romana 17: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, La Romana 44: La Romana leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and La Romana.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
Best match
47match

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

La Romana
42match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

La Romana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaLa Romana

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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.

La Romana's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Punta Cana.

La Romana 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). La Romana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (65.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaLa Romana
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123911
Elevation1,582 m10 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaLa Romana
City population59,091139,238
People per km²-512
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or La Romana 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.