VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Kathmandu 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 Kathmandu for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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. Kathmandu 4, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, San Juan 66: San Juan leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, San Juan 64: Kathmandu leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu 36, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu 70, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, San Juan 52: Kathmandu leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu 25, San Juan 38: San Juan leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, San Juan 50: Kathmandu leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, San Juan 38: Kathmandu leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, San Juan 55: San Juan leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, San Juan 40: Kathmandu leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and San Juan.

Your match

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

Kathmandu
48match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Juan
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduSan Juan
Official languageNepaliSpanish, English
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101911
Elevation1,300 m3 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-21 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduSan Juan
City population845,767342,259
People per km²17,1212,847
Museums within 10 km918
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Kathmandu 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.