VacationSelector
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana
Ushuaia below snow-capped mountains, Ushuaia
UshuaiaUshuaia below snow-capped mountains

Photos: Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0; Ushuaia by Jan Tang, Pexels License.

Punta Cana or Ushuaia?

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
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Ushuaia for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Ushuaia’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, Ushuaia 3: Punta Cana leads by 91 points.
Food & drink. Punta Cana 30, Ushuaia 40: Ushuaia leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Punta Cana 8, Ushuaia 22: Ushuaia leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Punta Cana 40, Ushuaia 18: Punta Cana leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta Cana 52, Ushuaia 88: Ushuaia leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Punta Cana 35, Ushuaia 14: Punta Cana leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Punta Cana 68, Ushuaia 40: Punta Cana leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Punta Cana 15, Ushuaia 45: Ushuaia leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Punta Cana 30, Ushuaia 22: Punta Cana leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Punta Cana 44, Ushuaia 42: Punta Cana leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta Cana 15, Ushuaia 10: Punta Cana leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta Cana 52, Ushuaia 26: Punta Cana leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta Cana and Ushuaia.

Your match

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

Punta Cana
Best match
40match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Ushuaia
31match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Ushuaia in July

4 °Cdaytime high
0 °Cnight-time low
36 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
No seasea
8 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Punta CanaUshuaia

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). Ushuaia: 1991-2020 normals, Ushuaia Aerodrome (1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta CanaUshuaia
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation28 m23 m
Main airportPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsUshuaia - Malvinas Argentinas International Airport (USH)4 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePunta CanaUshuaia
City population138,91982,615
People per km²2923,592
Museums within 10 km05
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Ushuaia 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.