VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Pattaya 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 Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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. Pattaya 66, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Puerto Plata 40: Pattaya leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Puerto Plata 38: Pattaya leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Puerto Plata 48: Pattaya leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Puerto Plata 30: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Puerto Plata 30: Pattaya leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Puerto Plata 64: Pattaya leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Puerto Plata 18: Pattaya leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Puerto Plata 35: Pattaya leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and wellness with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

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. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaPuerto Plata
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation35 m34 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaPuerto Plata
City population119,532-
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Pattaya or Puerto Plata somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.