VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Buenos Aires 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 Buenos Aires for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Buenos Aires’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. Buenos Aires 7, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, San Juan 66: Buenos Aires leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, San Juan 64: Buenos Aires leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, San Juan 70: Buenos Aires leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, San Juan 52: Buenos Aires leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, San Juan 38: Buenos Aires leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, San Juan 50: Buenos Aires leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, San Juan 38: Buenos Aires leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, San Juan 55: Buenos Aires leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, San Juan 40: San Juan leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and San Juan.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Buenos Aires
57match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 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
Buenos AiresSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresSan Juan
Official languageSpanishSpanish, English
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-4
Emergency number117 or 911911
Elevation25 m3 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresSan Juan
City population3,121,707342,259
People per km²15,3552,847
Museums within 10 km7618
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Buenos Aires 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). 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.