VacationSelector
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Punta Cana or San Sebastian?

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 Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’s own page.

Choose San Sebastian for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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. Punta Cana 94, San Sebastian 68: Punta Cana leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Punta Cana 30, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 58 points.
Culture & sights. Punta Cana 8, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Punta Cana 40, San Sebastian 44: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta Cana 52, San Sebastian 72: San Sebastian leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Punta Cana 35, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Punta Cana 68, San Sebastian 66: Punta Cana leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Punta Cana 15, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 65 points.
Shopping & style. Punta Cana 30, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Punta Cana 44, San Sebastian 32: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta Cana 15, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta Cana 52, San Sebastian 50: Punta Cana leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta Cana and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on getting around 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.

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Punta CanaSan Sebastian

Where the figures come from

Punta Cana 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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta CanaSan Sebastian
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation28 m6 m
Main airportPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePunta CanaSan Sebastian
City population138,919189,866
People per km²2923,118
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Punta Cana or San Sebastian 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.