VacationSelector
The Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi
HanoiThe Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Hanoi by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Hanoi 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 Hanoi for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Hanoi 6, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Hanoi 85, Puerto Plata 40: Hanoi leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Hanoi 72, Puerto Plata 35: Hanoi leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Hanoi 50, Puerto Plata 38: Hanoi leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hanoi 52, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Hanoi 58, Puerto Plata 48: Hanoi leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Hanoi 35, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Hanoi 36, Puerto Plata 30: Hanoi leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Hanoi 50, Puerto Plata 30: Hanoi leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Hanoi 98, Puerto Plata 64: Hanoi leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hanoi 40, Puerto Plata 18: Hanoi leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hanoi 46, Puerto Plata 35: Hanoi leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hanoi and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Hanoi
Best match
52match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights 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.

Hanoi in July

34 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
311 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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
HanoiPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Hanoi's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Phu Lien.

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. Hanoi: 1991-2020 normals, Ha Noi (4.4 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHanoiPuerto Plata
Official languageVietnameseSpanish
CurrencyDong (VND)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114911
Elevation10 m34 m
Main airportNoi Bai International Airport (HAN)22 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHanoiPuerto Plata
City population8,717,600-
People per km²2,595-
Museums within 10 km141
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 Hanoi 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.