VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Pattaya 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 Pattaya for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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. Pattaya 66, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Punta Cana 30: Pattaya leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Punta Cana 8: Pattaya leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Punta Cana 40: Pattaya leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Punta Cana 35: Pattaya leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Punta Cana 15: Pattaya leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Punta Cana 30: Pattaya leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Punta Cana 44: Pattaya leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Punta Cana 15: Pattaya leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Punta Cana 52: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Punta Cana.

Your match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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.

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

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 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
PattayaPunta Cana

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.

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. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaPunta Cana
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 m28 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaPunta Cana
City population119,532138,919
People per km²-292
Museums within 10 km00
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 Punta Cana 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.