VacationSelector
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Portland 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 Portland for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Portland 20, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Portland 68, San Juan 66: Portland leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Portland 38, San Juan 64: San Juan leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Portland 52, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portland 84, San Juan 74: Portland leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Portland 58, San Juan 52: Portland leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Portland 55, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Portland 62, San Juan 38: Portland leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Portland 52, San Juan 50: Portland leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Portland and San Juan are level on 38.
Live music & performing arts. Portland and San Juan are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Portland 42, San Juan 40: Portland leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Portland and San Juan.

Your match

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

Portland
52match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

San Juan
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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
PortlandSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortlandSan Juan
Official language-Spanish, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation152 m3 m
Main airportPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortlandSan Juan
City population652,503342,259
People per km²1,7362,847
Museums within 10 km1718
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Portland 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.