VacationSelector
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig

Photos: La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License.

La Romana or Manila?

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 La Romana for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Manila for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Manila’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. La Romana 84, Manila 12: La Romana leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. La Romana 38, Manila 64: Manila leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. La Romana 24, Manila 54: Manila leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. La Romana 30, Manila 64: Manila leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Romana 62, Manila 40: La Romana leads by 22 points.
Day trips. La Romana 52, Manila 42: La Romana leads by 10 points.
Good for families. La Romana 56, Manila 42: La Romana leads by 14 points.
Getting around. La Romana 24, Manila 26: Manila leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. La Romana 28, Manila 60: Manila leads by 32 points.
Affordability. La Romana 50, Manila 77: Manila leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Romana 17, Manila 50: Manila leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Romana 44, Manila 40: La Romana leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Romana and Manila.

Your match

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

La Romana
42match

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

Manila
Best match
48match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

La Romana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
La RomanaManila

Where the figures come from

La Romana's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Punta Cana.

La Romana 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. La Romana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (65.4 km from centre). Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa RomanaManila
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+8
Emergency number911911
Elevation10 m9 m
Main airportCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa RomanaManila
City population139,2381,902,590
People per km²51276,104
Museums within 10 km027
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 La Romana or Manila 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.