VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Fes 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 Fes for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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. Fes 5, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Puerto Plata 40: Fes leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Puerto Plata 35: Fes leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Puerto Plata 38: Puerto Plata leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Puerto Plata 48: Fes leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Puerto Plata 30: Fes leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Puerto Plata 30: Fes leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Puerto Plata 64: Fes leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Puerto Plata 18: Fes leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Puerto Plata 35: Fes leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Fes
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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.

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
FesPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

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. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesPuerto Plata
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCE50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation408 m34 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFesPuerto Plata
City population1,167,842-
People per km²3,650-
Museums within 10 km21
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 Fes 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.