VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta or Santo Domingo?

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 Vallarta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’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 Vallarta 85, Santo Domingo 58: Puerto Vallarta leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Santo Domingo 58: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Santo Domingo 64: Santo Domingo leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta and Santo Domingo are level on 66.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Santo Domingo 36: Puerto Vallarta leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Santo Domingo 44: Puerto Vallarta leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Santo Domingo 40: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Santo Domingo 40: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Santo Domingo 44: Santo Domingo leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Santo Domingo 46: Santo Domingo leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Santo Domingo 22: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

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

Santo Domingo
49match

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 Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaSanto Domingo

Where the figures come from

Puerto Vallarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Santo Domingo 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 Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaSanto Domingo
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation101 m14 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaSanto Domingo
City population224,1662,201,941
People per km²4,3111,691
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Puerto Vallarta or Santo Domingo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.