VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Sebastian 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 San Sebastian for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. San Sebastian 68, Santo Domingo 58: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Santo Domingo 58: San Sebastian leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Santo Domingo 64: Santo Domingo leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Santo Domingo 36: San Sebastian leads by 36 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Santo Domingo 44: San Sebastian leads by 36 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Santo Domingo 40: San Sebastian leads by 26 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Santo Domingo 40: San Sebastian leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Santo Domingo 44: Santo Domingo leads by 4 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Santo Domingo 46: Santo Domingo leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Santo Domingo 22: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Santo Domingo
49match

Wins on prices 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.

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 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
San SebastianSanto Domingo

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 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. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianSanto Domingo
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation6 m14 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianSanto Domingo
City population189,8662,201,941
People per km²3,1181,691
Museums within 10 km1410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Sebastian 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.