VacationSelector
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Puerto Plata or Santa Fe?

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
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Fe for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’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, Santa Fe 5: Puerto Plata leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Plata 40, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Plata 35, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Plata 38, Santa Fe 22: Puerto Plata leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Plata 68, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Puerto Plata 48, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Puerto Plata 57, Santa Fe 45: Puerto Plata leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Puerto Plata 30, Santa Fe 40: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Plata 30, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Puerto Plata 64, Santa Fe 30: Puerto Plata leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Plata 18, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Plata 35, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Plata and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping 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
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto PlataSanta Fe

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.

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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 Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PlataSanta Fe
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation34 m2,134 m
Main airportGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PlataSanta Fe
City population-87,505
People per km²-645
Museums within 10 km110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Santa Fe 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.