VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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. Arequipa 8, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Puerto Plata 40: Arequipa leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Puerto Plata 35: Arequipa leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Puerto Plata 38: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Puerto Plata 68: Arequipa leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Puerto Plata 30: Arequipa leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Puerto Plata 30: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Puerto Plata 64: Arequipa leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Puerto Plata 18: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa 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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

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.

Arequipa in July

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

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaPuerto Plata

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.

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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaPuerto Plata
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 m34 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaPuerto Plata
City population1,008,290-
People per km²1,551-
Museums within 10 km31
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 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. 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.