VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Athens or San Juan?

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 Athens for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Juan’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. Athens 70, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, San Juan 66: Athens leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, San Juan 64: Athens leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, San Juan 70: Athens leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, San Juan 52: Athens leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Athens and San Juan are level on 58.
Getting around. Athens 66, San Juan 38: Athens leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, San Juan 50: Athens leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, San Juan 38: Athens leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, San Juan 55: Athens leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, San Juan 40: Athens leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and San Juan.

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

San Juan
57match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

San Juan in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AthensSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensSan Juan
Official languageGreekSpanish, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation74 m3 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensSan Juan
City population643,452342,259
People per km²16,4992,847
Museums within 10 km8818
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens or San Juan 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. 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.