VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Barcelona 75, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, San Juan 66: Barcelona leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, San Juan 64: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, San Juan 70: Barcelona leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, San Juan 52: Barcelona leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, San Juan 58: Barcelona leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, San Juan 38: Barcelona leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, San Juan 50: Barcelona leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, San Juan 38: Barcelona leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, San Juan 55: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, San Juan 40: San Juan leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and San Juan.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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.

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °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
BarcelonaSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaSan Juan
Official languageSpanishSpanish, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation9 m3 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaSan Juan
City population1,731,649342,259
People per km²17,0942,847
Museums within 10 km9518
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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.