VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • getting around

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. Los Angeles 60, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Puerto Plata 40: Los Angeles leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Puerto Plata 35: Los Angeles leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Puerto Plata 38: Los Angeles leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Puerto Plata 68: Los Angeles leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Puerto Plata 48: Los Angeles leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Puerto Plata 57: Los Angeles leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Puerto Plata 30: Los Angeles leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Puerto Plata 18: Los Angeles leads by 65 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Puerto Plata 35: Los Angeles leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

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

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesPuerto 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. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesPuerto 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
Elevation106 m34 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesPuerto Plata
City population3,898,747-
People per km²2,994-
Museums within 10 km391
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Angeles 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). 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. 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.