VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Kathmandu 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 Kathmandu for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • families
  • getting around

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. Kathmandu 4, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, Puerto Plata 40: Kathmandu leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, Puerto Plata 35: Kathmandu leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu 36, Puerto Plata 38: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu 70, Puerto Plata 68: Kathmandu leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, Puerto Plata 48: Kathmandu leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu 25, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, Puerto Plata 30: Kathmandu leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, Puerto Plata 64: Kathmandu leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, Puerto Plata 18: Kathmandu leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, Puerto Plata 35: Kathmandu leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Kathmandu
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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.

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduPuerto 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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduPuerto Plata
Official languageNepaliSpanish
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101911
Elevation1,300 m34 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduPuerto Plata
City population845,767-
People per km²17,121-
Museums within 10 km91
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 Kathmandu 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.