VacationSelector
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Punta Cana or York?

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
  • families

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

Choose York for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Punta Cana leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Punta Cana 30, York 42: York leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Punta Cana 8, York 70: York leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Punta Cana 40, York 36: Punta Cana leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta Cana 52, York 62: York leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Punta Cana 35, York 80: York leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Punta Cana 68, York 60: Punta Cana leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Punta Cana 15, York 72: York leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Punta Cana 30, York 46: York leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Punta Cana 44, York 38: Punta Cana leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta Cana 15, York 38: York leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta Cana 52, York 34: Punta Cana leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta Cana and York.

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.

York
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Punta CanaYork

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.

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

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). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta CanaYork
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation28 m25 m
Main airportPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasurePunta CanaYork
City population138,919208,400
People per km²292766
Museums within 10 km024
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 York 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.