VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Lima 42, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Puerto Plata 40: Lima leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Puerto Plata 35: Lima leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Puerto Plata 38: Lima leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Puerto Plata 30: Lima leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Puerto Plata 30: Lima leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Puerto Plata 64: Lima leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Puerto Plata 18: Lima leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
LimaPuerto 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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaPuerto Plata
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation154 m34 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaPuerto Plata
City population9,943,800-
People per km²3,721-
Museums within 10 km471
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lima 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. 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. 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.