VacationSelector
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Puerto Plata or Wilmington?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Puerto Plata leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Plata 40, Wilmington 48: Wilmington leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Plata 35, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Plata 38, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Plata 68, Wilmington 58: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Puerto Plata 48, Wilmington 45: Puerto Plata leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Puerto Plata 57, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Puerto Plata 30, Wilmington 28: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Plata 30, Wilmington 33: Wilmington leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Puerto Plata 64, Wilmington 42: Puerto Plata leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Plata 18, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Plata 35, Wilmington 33: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Plata and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto PlataWilmington

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). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PlataWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PlataWilmington
City population-115,451
People per km²-839
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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