VacationSelector
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santo Domingo or Wilmington?

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 Santo Domingo for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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. Santo Domingo 58, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Santo Domingo 58, Wilmington 48: Santo Domingo leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Santo Domingo 64, Wilmington 40: Santo Domingo leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Santo Domingo 66, Wilmington 40: Santo Domingo leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santo Domingo 36, Wilmington 58: Wilmington leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Santo Domingo 44, Wilmington 45: Wilmington leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Santo Domingo 40, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Santo Domingo 40, Wilmington 28: Santo Domingo leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Santo Domingo 44, Wilmington 33: Santo Domingo leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Santo Domingo 66, Wilmington 42: Santo Domingo leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santo Domingo 46, Wilmington 40: Santo Domingo leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santo Domingo 22, Wilmington 33: Wilmington leads by 11 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santo Domingo and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Santo Domingo
Best match
49match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santo DomingoWilmington

Where the figures come from

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. Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanto DomingoWilmington
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation14 m9 m
Main airportLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanto DomingoWilmington
City population2,201,941115,451
People per km²1,691839
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santo Domingo or Wilmington 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.