Best and Worst Months to Visit Dominican Republic

Golf rises in popularity during cooler months of the year. © Dominican Republic Office of Tourism

Punta Cana and Puerto Plata are only 200 miles apart in the island country of Dominican Republic, but their weather is quite a bit different.

That difference makes it important to research their weather patterns to find the best times to go to each one of these hugely popular resort destinations.

Punta Cana is located on the western tip of Hispaniola, the island that is home to Haiti and Dominican Republic.

Puerto Plata is located on the northern coast of the island. Despite being more north, it is the warmer location of the two.

What’s more unusual about Punta Cana and Puerto Plata is that they often have almost completely opposite dry and rainy seasons.

Punta Cana has the most rain during the normal peak times of the Caribbean hurricane season -- August through November. The worst rain months for Puerto Plata are November through January.

Best Times for Punta Cana

The driest months of the year for Punta Cana are December through April, when rainfall averages two to three inches a month, according to historical averages from the World Weather Organization.

But those months also are the coolest times of the year for Punta Cana with average high temperatures in the low 80s Fahrenheit or high 20s Celsius.

Rainfall from May through August averages around four inches a month, but high temperatures average around 86 degrees F or 30 degrees C.

So the best times to go depend on how much time will be spent in the water or on the land.

Beach goers will find that the summer is better, while people who don’t mind relaxing by a heated pool may be fine with the winter months.

Best Times for Puerto Plata

Puerto Plata is clearly a summertime destination with average highs reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit or 32 degrees Celsius from June through September.

At the same time, rainfall averages only two to three inches those same months.

November through January are clearly the worst times to go because of higher risk of rain and low average temperatures.

Budget Travelers

People who travel on a tight budget know that the most popular times of the year to visit the Caribbean also tend to have the highest prices.

The truly budget conscious will go during the worst months with the hope of seeing better than average weather and lower than average prices, especially if they go at the last minute and check the weather forecast.

In those cases, December may be a good time to go to Punta Cana. April and October are decent months to go to Puerto Plata.

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