VacationSelector
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Punta Cana or Shanghai?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Punta Cana leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Punta Cana 30, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 58 points.
Culture & sights. Punta Cana 8, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 64 points.
Nightlife. Punta Cana 40, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta Cana 52, Shanghai 25: Punta Cana leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Punta Cana 35, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 55 points.
Good for families. Punta Cana 68, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Punta Cana 15, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 70 points.
Shopping & style. Punta Cana 30, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 52 points.
Affordability. Punta Cana 44, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta Cana 15, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta Cana 52, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta Cana and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Punta Cana
40match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Punta CanaShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta CanaShanghai
Official languageSpanishPutonghua
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation28 m4 m
Main airportPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasurePunta CanaShanghai
City population138,91924,870,895
People per km²2923,922
Museums within 10 km045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Punta Cana or Shanghai 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.