VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Newport Beach or Santo Domingo?

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 Newport Beach for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’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. Newport Beach 70, Santo Domingo 58: Newport Beach leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Santo Domingo 58: Santo Domingo leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Santo Domingo 64: Santo Domingo leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Santo Domingo 36: Newport Beach leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Santo Domingo 44: Newport Beach leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Santo Domingo 40: Newport Beach leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Santo Domingo 40: Santo Domingo leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Santo Domingo 44: Newport Beach leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 51 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach and Santo Domingo are level on 46.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Santo Domingo 22: Newport Beach leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Newport Beach
48match

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

Santo Domingo
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 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
Newport BeachSanto Domingo

Where the figures come from

Santo Domingo 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. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre). Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachSanto Domingo
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
Elevation3 m14 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachSanto Domingo
City population85,2392,201,941
People per km²6221,691
Museums within 10 km410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Newport Beach or Santo Domingo 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.