VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Hiroshima’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. Hiroshima 30, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Puerto Plata 40: Hiroshima leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, Puerto Plata 35: Hiroshima leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Puerto Plata 38: Hiroshima leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Puerto Plata 48: Hiroshima leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, Puerto Plata 57: Hiroshima leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Puerto Plata 30: Hiroshima leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, Puerto Plata 30: Hiroshima leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Puerto Plata 18: Hiroshima leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, Puerto Plata 35: Hiroshima leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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.

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaPuerto 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. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaPuerto 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
Elevation3 m34 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaPuerto Plata
City population1,198,021-
People per km²1,324-
Museums within 10 km181
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 Hiroshima or Puerto Plata somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.