VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Manila 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 Manila for

  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Manila 12, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, San Juan 66: San Juan leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, San Juan 64: San Juan leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, San Juan 52: San Juan leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, San Juan 38: San Juan leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, San Juan 50: Manila leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, San Juan 38: Manila leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, San Juan 55: San Juan leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila and San Juan are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manila and San Juan.

Your match

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

Manila
48match

Wins on prices and shopping 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.

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManilaSan Juan
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish, English
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation9 m3 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaSan Juan
City population1,902,590342,259
People per km²76,1042,847
Museums within 10 km2718
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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