VacationSelector
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Puerto Escondido 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 Puerto Escondido for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • day trips

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. Puerto Escondido 82, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Escondido leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Escondido 48, Puerto Plata 40: Puerto Escondido leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Escondido 8, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Escondido 45, Puerto Plata 38: Puerto Escondido leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Escondido 78, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Escondido leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Puerto Escondido 35, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Puerto Escondido 42, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Puerto Escondido 40, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Escondido leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Escondido 22, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Puerto Escondido 68, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Escondido leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Escondido 12, Puerto Plata 18: Puerto Plata leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Escondido 58, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Escondido leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Escondido and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Puerto Escondido
45match

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

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Puerto Escondido in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
7 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto EscondidoPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Puerto Escondido's temperatures are measured 66 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Puerto Escondido 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.

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. Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto EscondidoPuerto Plata
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation60 m34 m
Main airportPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto EscondidoPuerto Plata
City population29,903-
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 Puerto Escondido 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. 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.