VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Kathmandu 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 Kathmandu for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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. Kathmandu 4, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 90 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, Punta Cana 30: Kathmandu leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, Punta Cana 8: Kathmandu leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu 36, Punta Cana 40: Punta Cana leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu 70, Punta Cana 52: Kathmandu leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, Punta Cana 35: Kathmandu leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 48 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu 25, Punta Cana 15: Kathmandu leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, Punta Cana 30: Kathmandu leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, Punta Cana 44: Kathmandu leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, Punta Cana 15: Kathmandu leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Punta Cana.

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.

Punta Cana
40match

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

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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduPunta 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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduPunta Cana
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 m28 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduPunta Cana
City population845,767138,919
People per km²17,121292
Museums within 10 km90
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 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.