VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Manila or Punta Cana?

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 Manila for

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

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’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. Manila 12, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, Punta Cana 30: Manila leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, Punta Cana 8: Manila leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, Punta Cana 40: Manila leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, Punta Cana 35: Manila leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, Punta Cana 15: Manila leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, Punta Cana 30: Manila leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, Punta Cana 44: Manila leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, Punta Cana 15: Manila leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 40, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manila and Punta Cana.

Your match

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

Manila
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Punta Cana
40match

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.

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaPunta Cana

Where the figures come from

Punta Cana 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. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManilaPunta Cana
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation9 m28 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaPunta Cana
City population1,902,590138,919
People per km²76,104292
Museums within 10 km270
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Manila or Punta Cana 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.