VacationSelector
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Punta Cana or Wellington?

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
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Wellington for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Punta Cana leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Punta Cana 30, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Punta Cana 8, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Punta Cana 40, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta Cana 52, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Punta Cana 35, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Punta Cana 68, Wellington 62: Punta Cana leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Punta Cana 15, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Punta Cana 30, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Punta Cana 44, Wellington 33: Punta Cana leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta Cana 15, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta Cana 52, Wellington 30: Punta Cana leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta Cana and Wellington.

Your match

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

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Punta CanaWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta CanaWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation28 m0 m
Main airportPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePunta CanaWellington
City population138,919216,200
People per km²292487
Museums within 10 km012
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 Wellington 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.