VacationSelector
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Dublin or Punta Cana?

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 Dublin for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’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. Dublin 27, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Dublin 50, Punta Cana 30: Dublin leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Dublin 64, Punta Cana 8: Dublin leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Dublin 62, Punta Cana 40: Dublin leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dublin 70, Punta Cana 52: Dublin leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Dublin 72, Punta Cana 35: Dublin leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Dublin 57, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Dublin 66, Punta Cana 15: Dublin leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Dublin 54, Punta Cana 30: Dublin leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Dublin 20, Punta Cana 44: Punta Cana leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dublin 65, Punta Cana 15: Dublin leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dublin 25, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dublin and Punta Cana.

Your match

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

Dublin
Best match
53match

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

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DublinPunta Cana

Where the figures come from

Punta Cana 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. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDublinPunta Cana
Official languageEnglish, IrishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation20 m28 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDublinPunta Cana
City population592,713138,919
People per km²5,154292
Museums within 10 km400
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dublin or Punta Cana 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.