Puerto Plata or Santo Domingo?

Puerto Plata is the beach choice by some distance. Playa Dorada and Cofresí lie at the edge of town, Sosúa's reef-sheltered bay gives clear water for snorkelling, and the surf beaches at Cabarete and Encuentro add wind and waves. The only catches are winter swells on the open beaches and some seaweed in the warmer months.

Santo Domingo has no swimming in the city itself, where the Malecón faces coral rock and pounding surf. A beach day means a drive east to Boca Chica's shallow lagoon, which is crowded with local families at weekends, or to the quieter, longer sand at Juan Dolio.

Both serve the same Dominican staples of la bandera, sancocho and mofongo, but Santo Domingo takes them further. It has courtyard restaurants in the Colonial Zone's stone houses and more ambitious modern kitchens in Piantini and Naco that rework Creole flavours. Street carts selling chimi burgers and yaniqueques feed people late into the night.

Puerto Plata's best eating is simpler: whole fish grilled on the beach and plates of rice and stew at roadside comedores, with Sosúa and Cabarete adding international menus. Many visitors on all-inclusive stays rarely look beyond the hotel buffet.

For sights, Santo Domingo is in a different league. It was the first permanent European city in the Americas, and its Ciudad Colonial holds the first cathedral, Calle Las Damas, the Fortaleza Ozama and the Alcázar de Colón. The Museo del Hombre Dominicano and the Faro a Colón are just beyond the old quarter.

Puerto Plata's old town is smaller and gentler: gingerbread-trimmed wooden houses around Parque Independencia, the sixteenth-century Fortaleza San Felipe on the Malecón and the Amber Museum in its old mansion. It makes a pleasant day, while the capital rewards two or three.

Santo Domingo is the place to go out. Weekend nights start late and run well past midnight. You can choose between bars in colonial houses around Calle Hostos, polished clubs in Piantini and the loud open-air colmadones of the neighbourhoods, with merengue and bachata on every floor.

Puerto Plata dances to the same music on a much smaller scale, with seafront kiosks along the Malecón, a few bars and small clubs, and resort shows at Playa Dorada. The best night out is forty minutes away among the beach bars of Cabarete.

Puerto Plata has the outdoors on its doorstep. The cable car climbs Mount Isabel de Torres to a botanical garden and cloud forest, and the green ridges of the Cordillera Septentrional run inland. The Damajagua pools, Sosúa's dive reefs and Cabarete's kitesurfing flats are all within easy reach.

Santo Domingo's flat coastal plain offers far less: the cave lagoons of Los Tres Ojos, the National Botanical Garden and the shaded paths of Parque Mirador Sur. Los Haitises, Jarabacoa and Samaná need a long day or a night away, so keen hikers tend to move on.

Neither city has a long list of outings, and the real difference is the direction they go. From Puerto Plata the pick is Santiago, about an hour inland over the mountains. There are also the foundations of Columbus's settlement at La Isabela and boat trips to the Cayo Arena sandbars.

Santo Domingo's day trips mostly run east along the coast: the hilltop village of Altos de Chavón, the old sugar town of San Pedro de Macorís, and Bayahibe for boats to Saona and Catalina islands. Santiago is a stretch from the capital, and neither city can reach the other comfortably in a day.

Puerto Plata is easier with children, mainly thanks to the resorts at Playa Dorada and Cofresí with pools, kids' clubs and beach on site. Sosúa's calm bay suits small swimmers, while the marine park, the cable car and the Damajagua pools keep older children busy.

Santo Domingo has the National Aquarium, the zoo, the Los Tres Ojos caves, the cannons of the colonial forts and the gentle lagoon at Boca Chica. Against that come constant heat, heavy traffic and a taxi for almost every trip, which is why families often pair a short city stay with a beach resort.

Neither is easy, but Santo Domingo is the simpler of the two. The Colonial Zone keeps its main sights within a few streets of each other, and app-based taxis cheaply cover the hops to Piantini and the Malecón. The metro is clean, though built more for commuters than for visitors.

In Puerto Plata only the old centre and the Malecón can be walked, and everything else is strung along the coast road. Guaguas and motoconchos are informal, so most visitors depend on taxis, transfers and tours, or hire a car and cope with poorly lit roads after dark.

The souvenirs overlap: amber, larimar, cigars and aged rum are sold in both. Santo Domingo simply offers more ways to buy them, from the pedestrian Calle El Conde to the hard-bargaining Mercado Modelo, and it adds faceless clay dolls. Its air-conditioned malls in Piantini and Naco also cover fashion and international brands.

Puerto Plata has jewellery shops in the centre, the umbrella-hung street in the old town and one small mall near Playa Dorada, and not much more. Its amber does at least come from the mountains just behind the town.

The two cost much the same day to day, with cheap comedor lunches, cold local beer and inexpensive local transport in both. The difference lies in where the money goes.

In Puerto Plata most of it is paid up front on an all-inclusive package, and then tourist taxis and excursions push the bill up. In Santo Domingo, cheap app taxis keep getting around inexpensive, and costs climb only in the boutique colonial hotels and in Piantini's restaurants and cocktail bars.

Santo Domingo has an actual stage. The Teatro Nacional Eduardo Brito is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and hosts ballet and opera. The open-air Sunday evening concerts of son and merengue among the San Francisco ruins are worth planning a weekend around.

Puerto Plata's music lives in the bars and on street corners rather than in a hall, with weekend bands and a February carnival of costumed devils. Beyond that, most visitors see only resort shows.

Neither city has a bathing or spa culture of its own, but Puerto Plata makes it far easier to unwind. The big resorts at Playa Dorada have their own spas and long, unhurried days by the pool, and you can book a massage in the shade of the palms on the beach. In Cabarete, the surfers have brought in yoga classes and a few small retreats. The calm ends at the resort gates, though, because the town is loud with motorbike engines and music.

In Santo Domingo, treatments are mostly limited to the international hotels along the Malecón, and outside them the horns and speakers hardly ever stop. Quiet comes only for short spells, in the courtyard of a colonial guesthouse or under the trees of the botanical garden. That is why visitors who want real rest usually leave the capital for the coast.