VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Quito or Santo Domingo?

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 Quito for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’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. Quito 5, Santo Domingo 58: Santo Domingo leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Santo Domingo 58: Santo Domingo leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Santo Domingo 64: Quito leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Santo Domingo 36: Quito leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Santo Domingo 44: Quito leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Santo Domingo 40: Santo Domingo leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Santo Domingo 40: Quito leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Santo Domingo 44: Santo Domingo leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Santo Domingo 66: Quito leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Santo Domingo 46: Santo Domingo leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Santo Domingo 22: Quito leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Quito
50match

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

Santo Domingo
49match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoSanto Domingo

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Santo Domingo 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. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoSanto Domingo
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaSpanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,850 m14 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoSanto Domingo
City population1,763,2752,201,941
People per km²4,7351,691
Museums within 10 km1610
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quito or Santo Domingo 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.