VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Las Vegas or Puerto Plata?

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 Las Vegas for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Las Vegas’s own page.

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’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. Las Vegas 10, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, Puerto Plata 40: Las Vegas leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, Puerto Plata 38: Las Vegas leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas and Puerto Plata are level on 68.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, Puerto Plata 30: Las Vegas leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, Puerto Plata 30: Las Vegas leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, Puerto Plata 18: Las Vegas leads by 60 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 40, Puerto Plata 35: Las Vegas leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Las Vegas and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Las Vegas
47match

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

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Puerto Plata 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. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasPuerto Plata
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation610 m34 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLas VegasPuerto Plata
City population641,903-
People per km²1,843-
Museums within 10 km211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Las Vegas or Puerto Plata 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.