VacationSelector
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Punta Cana or Seattle?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Seattle for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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, Seattle 30: Punta Cana leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Punta Cana 30, Seattle 66: Seattle leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Punta Cana 8, Seattle 50: Seattle leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Punta Cana 40, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta Cana 52, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Punta Cana 35, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Punta Cana 68, Seattle 64: Punta Cana leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Punta Cana 15, Seattle 60: Seattle leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Punta Cana 30, Seattle 52: Seattle leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Punta Cana 44, Seattle 22: Punta Cana leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta Cana 15, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta Cana 52, Seattle 40: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta Cana and Seattle.

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.

Seattle
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around 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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Punta CanaSeattle

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). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta CanaSeattle
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation28 m40 m
Main airportPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePunta CanaSeattle
City population138,919737,015
People per km²2921,996
Museums within 10 km027
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 Punta Cana or Seattle 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.