VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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. Boston 35, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, San Juan 66: San Juan leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, San Juan 64: Boston leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, San Juan 52: Boston leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, San Juan 58: Boston leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, San Juan 38: Boston leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, San Juan 50: Boston leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, San Juan 38: San Juan leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, San Juan 55: Boston leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, San Juan 40: San Juan leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and San Juan.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Boston
56match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

San Juan
57match

Wins on beaches 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.

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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
BostonSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonSan Juan
Official language-Spanish, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation43 m3 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonSan Juan
City population675,647342,259
People per km²2,9102,847
Museums within 10 km5118
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.