VacationSelector
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Puerto Escondido 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 Puerto Escondido for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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. Puerto Escondido 82, Santo Domingo 58: Puerto Escondido leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Escondido 48, Santo Domingo 58: Santo Domingo leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Escondido 8, Santo Domingo 64: Santo Domingo leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Escondido 45, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Escondido 78, Santo Domingo 36: Puerto Escondido leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Puerto Escondido 35, Santo Domingo 44: Santo Domingo leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Puerto Escondido 42, Santo Domingo 40: Puerto Escondido leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Puerto Escondido and Santo Domingo are level on 40.
Shopping & style. Puerto Escondido 22, Santo Domingo 44: Santo Domingo leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Puerto Escondido 68, Santo Domingo 66: Puerto Escondido leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Escondido 12, Santo Domingo 46: Santo Domingo leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Escondido 58, Santo Domingo 22: Puerto Escondido leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Escondido and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

Puerto Escondido
45match

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

Santo Domingo
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 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 EscondidoSanto Domingo

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.

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. Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre). Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto EscondidoSanto Domingo
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 m14 m
Main airportPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto EscondidoSanto Domingo
City population29,9032,201,941
People per km²-1,691
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 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.