VacationSelector
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Plata or San Sebastian?

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

  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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, San Sebastian 68: Puerto Plata leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Plata 40, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Plata 35, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Plata 38, San Sebastian 44: San Sebastian leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Plata 68, San Sebastian 72: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Puerto Plata 48, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Puerto Plata 57, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Puerto Plata 30, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Plata 30, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Puerto Plata 64, San Sebastian 32: Puerto Plata leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Plata 18, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Plata 35, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Plata and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on getting around and food and drink 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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto PlataSan Sebastian

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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 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). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PlataSan Sebastian
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation34 m6 m
Main airportGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PlataSan Sebastian
City population-189,866
People per km²-3,118
Museums within 10 km114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Puerto Plata or San Sebastian 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.