VacationSelector
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Plata or Quito?

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 Plata for

  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Quito for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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 Plata 80, Quito 5: Puerto Plata leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Plata 40, Quito 54: Quito leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Plata 35, Quito 77: Quito leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Plata 38, Quito 40: Quito leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Plata 68, Quito 86: Quito leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Puerto Plata 48, Quito 55: Quito leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Puerto Plata 57, Quito 32: Puerto Plata leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Puerto Plata 30, Quito 45: Quito leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Plata 30, Quito 40: Quito leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Puerto Plata 64, Quito 78: Quito leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Plata 18, Quito 38: Quito leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Plata 35, Quito 44: Quito leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Plata and Quito.

Your match

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

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Quito
Best match
50match

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 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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto PlataQuito

Where the figures come from

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.

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PlataQuito
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation34 m2,850 m
Main airportGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PlataQuito
City population-1,763,275
People per km²-4,735
Museums within 10 km116
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Puerto Plata or Quito 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.