VacationSelector
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Plata or Valparaiso?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Valparaiso for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Puerto Plata leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Plata 40, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Plata 35, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Plata 38, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Plata 68, Valparaiso 60: Puerto Plata leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Puerto Plata 48, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Puerto Plata 57, Valparaiso 33: Puerto Plata leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Puerto Plata 30, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Plata and Valparaiso are level on 30.
Affordability. Puerto Plata 64, Valparaiso 60: Puerto Plata leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Plata 18, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Plata 35, Valparaiso 18: Puerto Plata leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Plata and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

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
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto PlataValparaiso

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.

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PlataValparaiso
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation34 m21 m
Main airportGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PlataValparaiso
City population-296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Puerto Plata or Valparaiso 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. 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.