VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Cologne 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 Cologne for

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

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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. Cologne 14, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, San Juan 66: San Juan leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, San Juan 64: Cologne leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, San Juan 52: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, San Juan 58: Cologne leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, San Juan 38: Cologne leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, San Juan 50: Cologne leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, San Juan 38: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, San Juan 55: Cologne leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, San Juan 40: Cologne leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne 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

Cologne
58match

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.

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
CologneSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneSan Juan
Official languageGermanSpanish, 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
Elevation59 m3 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneSan Juan
City population1,025,523342,259
People per km²2,5322,847
Museums within 10 km4018
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.