VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

London 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 London for

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

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. London 25, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Puerto Plata 40: London leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Puerto Plata 35: London leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Puerto Plata 38: London leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 11 points.
Day trips. London 90, Puerto Plata 48: London leads by 42 points.
Good for families. London 82, Puerto Plata 57: London leads by 25 points.
Getting around. London 85, Puerto Plata 30: London leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Puerto Plata 30: London leads by 65 points.
Affordability. London 15, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Puerto Plata 18: London leads by 80 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Puerto Plata 35: London leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

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

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
LondonPuerto 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. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonPuerto Plata
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation4 m34 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonPuerto Plata
City population8,799,728-
People per km²5,598-
Museums within 10 km2161
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 London 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.