VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

New York 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 New York for

  • shopping
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. New York 50, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, San Juan 66: New York leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, San Juan 64: New York leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, San Juan 70: New York leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 19 points.
Day trips. New York 68, San Juan 52: New York leads by 16 points.
Good for families. New York 70, San Juan 58: New York leads by 12 points.
Getting around. New York 82, San Juan 38: New York leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, San Juan 50: New York leads by 47 points.
Affordability. New York 12, San Juan 38: San Juan leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, San Juan 55: New York leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, San Juan 40: New York leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New York and San Juan.

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping and getting around with your weighting.

San Juan
57match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
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
New YorkSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkSan Juan
Official language-Spanish, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation25 m3 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkSan Juan
City population8,804,190342,259
People per km²7,2562,847
Museums within 10 km15718
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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