VacationSelector
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Puerto Plata or Wellington?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Puerto Plata leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Plata 40, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Plata 35, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Plata 38, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Plata 68, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Puerto Plata 48, Wellington 40: Puerto Plata leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Puerto Plata 57, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Puerto Plata 30, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Plata 30, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Puerto Plata 64, Wellington 33: Puerto Plata leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Plata 18, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Plata 35, Wellington 30: Puerto Plata leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Plata and Wellington.

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.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around 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
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto PlataWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PlataWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation34 m0 m
Main airportGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PlataWellington
City population-216,200
People per km²-487
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Wellington 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.