VacationSelector
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

La Romana or Santa Fe?

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
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Santa Fe for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’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, Santa Fe 5: La Romana leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. La Romana 38, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. La Romana 24, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. La Romana 30, Santa Fe 22: La Romana leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Romana 62, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 18 points.
Day trips. La Romana 52, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 18 points.
Good for families. La Romana 56, Santa Fe 45: La Romana leads by 11 points.
Getting around. La Romana 24, Santa Fe 40: Santa Fe leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. La Romana 28, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 34 points.
Affordability. La Romana 50, Santa Fe 30: La Romana leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Romana 17, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Romana 44, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Romana and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

La Romana
42match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
La RomanaSanta Fe

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.

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa RomanaSanta Fe
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation10 m2,134 m
Main airportCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa RomanaSanta Fe
City population139,23887,505
People per km²512645
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Romana or Santa Fe 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.