VacationSelector
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Guilin 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 Guilin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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. Guilin 8, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Guilin 45, Punta Cana 30: Guilin leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Guilin 40, Punta Cana 8: Guilin leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Guilin 30, Punta Cana 40: Punta Cana leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guilin 88, Punta Cana 52: Guilin leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Guilin 56, Punta Cana 35: Guilin leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Guilin 45, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Guilin 45, Punta Cana 15: Guilin leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Guilin 28, Punta Cana 30: Punta Cana leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Guilin 78, Punta Cana 44: Guilin leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guilin 30, Punta Cana 15: Guilin leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guilin 40, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guilin and Punta Cana.

Your match

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

Guilin
Best match
44match

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

Punta Cana
40match

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.

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
GuilinPunta 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. Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuilinPunta Cana
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation153 m28 m
Main airportGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuilinPunta Cana
City population4,931,137138,919
People per km²-292
Museums within 10 km10
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 Guilin 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. 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. 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.

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.