VacationSelector
The Teatro Amazonas, Manaus
ManausThe Teatro Amazonas
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Manaus by Jardelsliumba, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Manaus 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 Manaus for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • 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. Manaus 38, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Manaus 56, Puerto Plata 40: Manaus leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Manaus 46, Puerto Plata 35: Manaus leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Manaus 42, Puerto Plata 38: Manaus leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manaus 86, Puerto Plata 68: Manaus leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Manaus 12, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Manaus 35, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Manaus 27, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Manaus 36, Puerto Plata 30: Manaus leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Manaus 63, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manaus 54, Puerto Plata 18: Manaus leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manaus 20, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manaus 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

Manaus
43match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Manaus in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ManausPuerto 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. Manaus: 1991-2020 normals, Manaus (1.7 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManausPuerto Plata
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCN60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation92 m34 m
Main airportEduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureManausPuerto Plata
City population2,303,732-
People per km²202-
Museums within 10 km131
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Manaus 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.