VacationSelector
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

La Romana or San Sebastian?

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

  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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, San Sebastian 68: La Romana leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. La Romana 38, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. La Romana 24, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. La Romana 30, San Sebastian 44: San Sebastian leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Romana 62, San Sebastian 72: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Day trips. La Romana 52, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Good for families. La Romana 56, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Getting around. La Romana 24, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. La Romana 28, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 12 points.
Affordability. La Romana 50, San Sebastian 32: La Romana leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Romana 17, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Romana 44, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Romana and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

La Romana
42match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on getting around and food and drink 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
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
La RomanaSan Sebastian

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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa RomanaSan Sebastian
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation10 m6 m
Main airportCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa RomanaSan Sebastian
City population139,238189,866
People per km²5123,118
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Romana or San Sebastian 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.