VacationSelector
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

La Romana or Rio de Janeiro?

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

  • wellness
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Rio de Janeiro’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, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. La Romana 38, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. La Romana 24, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. La Romana 30, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Romana 62, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 28 points.
Day trips. La Romana 52, Rio de Janeiro 50: La Romana leads by 2 points.
Good for families. La Romana 56, Rio de Janeiro 50: La Romana leads by 6 points.
Getting around. La Romana 24, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. La Romana 28, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Affordability. La Romana 50, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Romana 17, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 49 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Romana 44, Rio de Janeiro 30: La Romana leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Romana and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

La Romana
42match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

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

Rio de Janeiro in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
45 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
La RomanaRio de Janeiro

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.

Rio de Janeiro has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLa RomanaRio de Janeiro
Official languageSpanishPortuguese
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation10 m31 m
Main airportCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa RomanaRio de Janeiro
City population139,2386,211,223
People per km²5124,930
Museums within 10 km069
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 Rio de Janeiro 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.