VacationSelector
The Japanese Covered Bridge, Hoi An
Hoi AnThe Japanese Covered Bridge
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Hoi An by François Guerraz, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Hoi An 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 Hoi An for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. Hoi An 72, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Hoi An 68, Punta Cana 30: Hoi An leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Hoi An 66, Punta Cana 8: Hoi An leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Hoi An 28, Punta Cana 40: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hoi An 63, Punta Cana 52: Hoi An leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Hoi An 50, Punta Cana 35: Hoi An leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Hoi An 58, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Hoi An 48, Punta Cana 15: Hoi An leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Hoi An 57, Punta Cana 30: Hoi An leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Hoi An 88, Punta Cana 44: Hoi An leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hoi An 24, Punta Cana 15: Hoi An leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hoi An 65, Punta Cana 52: Hoi An leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hoi An and Punta Cana.

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 prices with your weighting.

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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

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

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
Hoi AnPunta 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. Hoi An: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (23.5 km from centre). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHoi AnPunta Cana
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 m28 m
Main airportDa Nang International Airport (DAD)23 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHoi AnPunta Cana
City population121,716138,919
People per km²-292
Museums within 10 km50
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 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.