VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Huatulco 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 Huatulco for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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. Huatulco 86, Puerto Plata 80: Huatulco leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Puerto Plata 40: Huatulco leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Puerto Plata 38: Puerto Plata leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Puerto Plata 68: Huatulco leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Puerto Plata 30: Huatulco leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Puerto Plata 18: Puerto Plata leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Puerto Plata 35: Huatulco leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Huatulco
43match

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

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Huatulco in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
156 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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.

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. Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoPuerto Plata
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation220 m34 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoPuerto Plata
City population7,409-
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Huatulco 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). 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.