VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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. Madrid 5, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, San Juan 66: Madrid leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, San Juan 64: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, San Juan 70: Madrid leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, San Juan 52: Madrid leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, San Juan 58: Madrid leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, San Juan 38: Madrid leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, San Juan 50: Madrid leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, San Juan 38: Madrid leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, San Juan 55: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, San Juan 40: San Juan leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and San Juan.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

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.

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
MadridSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridSan Juan
Official languageSpanishSpanish, 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
Elevation663 m3 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridSan Juan
City population3,506,730342,259
People per km²5,8012,847
Museums within 10 km8818
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 Madrid 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.