VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose La Romana for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

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. Arequipa 8, La Romana 84: La Romana leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, La Romana 38: Arequipa leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, La Romana 24: Arequipa leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, La Romana 30: Arequipa leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, La Romana 62: Arequipa leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, La Romana 52: La Romana leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, La Romana 56: La Romana leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, La Romana 24: Arequipa leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, La Romana 28: Arequipa leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, La Romana 50: Arequipa leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, La Romana 17: Arequipa leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, La Romana 44: La Romana leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and La Romana.

Your match

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

Arequipa
Best match
46match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

La Romana
42match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaLa Romana

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). La Romana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (65.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaLa Romana
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation2,335 m10 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaLa Romana
City population1,008,290139,238
People per km²1,551512
Museums within 10 km30
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 Arequipa 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.