VacationSelector
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

La Romana or Santa Monica?

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 Santa Monica for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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 Monica 66: La Romana leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. La Romana 38, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. La Romana 24, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. La Romana 30, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Romana 62, Santa Monica 72: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Day trips. La Romana 52, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Good for families. La Romana 56, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 14 points.
Getting around. La Romana 24, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. La Romana 28, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 28 points.
Affordability. La Romana 50, Santa Monica 14: La Romana leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Romana 17, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Romana 44, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Romana and Santa Monica.

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.

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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 Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
La RomanaSanta Monica

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). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa RomanaSanta Monica
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation10 m32 m
Main airportCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa RomanaSanta Monica
City population139,23893,076
People per km²5124,270
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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