VacationSelector
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Punta Cana or Scottsdale?

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 Scottsdale for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Punta Cana leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Punta Cana 30, Scottsdale 46: Scottsdale leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Punta Cana 8, Scottsdale 38: Scottsdale leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Punta Cana 40, Scottsdale 52: Scottsdale leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta Cana 52, Scottsdale 68: Scottsdale leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Punta Cana 35, Scottsdale 50: Scottsdale leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Punta Cana 68, Scottsdale 60: Punta Cana leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Punta Cana 15, Scottsdale 20: Scottsdale leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Punta Cana 30, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Punta Cana 44, Scottsdale 32: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta Cana 15, Scottsdale 40: Scottsdale leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta Cana 52, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta Cana and Scottsdale.

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.

Scottsdale
Best match
46match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Punta CanaScottsdale

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.

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). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta CanaScottsdale
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation28 m380 m
Main airportPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePunta CanaScottsdale
City population138,919241,361
People per km²292-
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Punta Cana or Scottsdale 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.