VacationSelector
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Plata or Virginia Beach?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Puerto Plata leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Plata 40, Virginia Beach 42: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Plata 35, Virginia Beach 30: Puerto Plata leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Plata 38, Virginia Beach 37: Puerto Plata leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Plata 68, Virginia Beach 56: Puerto Plata leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Puerto Plata 48, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Puerto Plata 57, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Puerto Plata 30, Virginia Beach 27: Puerto Plata leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Plata 30, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Puerto Plata 64, Virginia Beach 40: Puerto Plata leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Plata 18, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Plata 35, Virginia Beach 32: Puerto Plata leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Plata and Virginia Beach.

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 prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on live music and the arts and families 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto PlataVirginia Beach

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.

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). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PlataVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation34 m7 m
Main airportGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PlataVirginia Beach
City population-459,470
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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