VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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. Lima 42, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, San Juan 66: Lima leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, San Juan 64: Lima leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, San Juan 52: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, San Juan 38: San Juan leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, San Juan 50: Lima leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, San Juan 38: Lima leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, San Juan 55: San Juan leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, San Juan 40: San Juan leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and San Juan.

Your match

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

Lima
51match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

San Juan
Best match
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.

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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
LimaSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaSan Juan
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish, English
CurrencySol (PEN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation154 m3 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaSan Juan
City population9,943,800342,259
People per km²3,7212,847
Museums within 10 km4718
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lima 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.