VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Cape Town 58, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, San Juan 66: Cape Town leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, San Juan 64: San Juan leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, San Juan 74: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, San Juan 52: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cape Town and San Juan are level on 58.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, San Juan 38: San Juan leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town and San Juan are level on 50.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, San Juan 38: Cape Town leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, San Juan 55: San Juan leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, San Juan 40: Cape Town leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors 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.

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °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
Cape TownSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownSan Juan
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish, English
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m3 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownSan Juan
City population3,776,313342,259
People per km²1,5382,847
Museums within 10 km2218
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Cape Town 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.