VacationSelector
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Fukuoka 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 Fukuoka for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches

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. Fukuoka 50, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Fukuoka 82, Punta Cana 30: Fukuoka leads by 52 points.
Culture & sights. Fukuoka 50, Punta Cana 8: Fukuoka leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Fukuoka 60, Punta Cana 40: Fukuoka leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fukuoka 62, Punta Cana 52: Fukuoka leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Fukuoka 84, Punta Cana 35: Fukuoka leads by 49 points.
Good for families. Fukuoka 78, Punta Cana 68: Fukuoka leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Fukuoka 82, Punta Cana 15: Fukuoka leads by 67 points.
Shopping & style. Fukuoka 65, Punta Cana 30: Fukuoka leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Fukuoka 58, Punta Cana 44: Fukuoka leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fukuoka 45, Punta Cana 15: Fukuoka leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fukuoka 60, Punta Cana 52: Fukuoka leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fukuoka and Punta Cana.

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.

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches 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

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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
FukuokaPunta 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. Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFukuokaPunta Cana
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 m28 m
Main airportFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFukuokaPunta Cana
City population1,603,043138,919
People per km²4,715292
Museums within 10 km230
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 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.