VacationSelector
The Japanese Covered Bridge, Hoi An
Hoi AnThe Japanese Covered Bridge
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Hoi An by François Guerraz, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Hoi An 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 Hoi An for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • 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. Hoi An 72, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Hoi An 68, Puerto Plata 40: Hoi An leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Hoi An 66, Puerto Plata 35: Hoi An leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Hoi An 28, Puerto Plata 38: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hoi An 63, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Hoi An 50, Puerto Plata 48: Hoi An leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Hoi An 58, Puerto Plata 57: Hoi An leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Hoi An 48, Puerto Plata 30: Hoi An leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Hoi An 57, Puerto Plata 30: Hoi An leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Hoi An 88, Puerto Plata 64: Hoi An leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hoi An 24, Puerto Plata 18: Hoi An leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hoi An 65, Puerto Plata 35: Hoi An leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hoi An and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Hoi An
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hoi An in July

35 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
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

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
Hoi AnPuerto 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. Hoi An: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (23.5 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHoi AnPuerto 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
Elevation13 m34 m
Main airportDa Nang International Airport (DAD)23 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHoi AnPuerto Plata
City population121,716-
Museums within 10 km51
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hoi An 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). 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. 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.