VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Clearwater 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 Clearwater for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Clearwater 90, Puerto Plata 80: Clearwater leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Puerto Plata 40: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Puerto Plata 38: Puerto Plata leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Puerto Plata 48: Clearwater leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Puerto Plata 57: Clearwater leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Puerto Plata 18: Clearwater leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Puerto Plata 35: Clearwater leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Clearwater
45match

Wins on families and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Clearwater in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 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
ClearwaterPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Clearwater 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.

Clearwater's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

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. Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterPuerto Plata
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation9 m34 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterPuerto Plata
City population117,292-
People per km²1,154-
Museums within 10 km41
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Clearwater 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.