VacationSelector
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Fukuoka 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 Fukuoka for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Fukuoka 50, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Fukuoka 82, Puerto Plata 40: Fukuoka leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Fukuoka 50, Puerto Plata 35: Fukuoka leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Fukuoka 60, Puerto Plata 38: Fukuoka leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fukuoka 62, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Fukuoka 84, Puerto Plata 48: Fukuoka leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Fukuoka 78, Puerto Plata 57: Fukuoka leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Fukuoka 82, Puerto Plata 30: Fukuoka leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Fukuoka 65, Puerto Plata 30: Fukuoka leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Fukuoka 58, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fukuoka 45, Puerto Plata 18: Fukuoka leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fukuoka 60, Puerto Plata 35: Fukuoka leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fukuoka and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Fukuoka
Best match
65match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fukuoka in July

31 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
301 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
FukuokaPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

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. Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFukuokaPuerto Plata
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation8 m34 m
Main airportFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFukuokaPuerto Plata
City population1,603,043-
People per km²4,715-
Museums within 10 km231
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fukuoka 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.