VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Quito 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 Quito for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Quito 5, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, San Juan 66: San Juan leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, San Juan 64: Quito leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, San Juan 74: Quito leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, San Juan 52: Quito leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, San Juan 38: Quito leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, San Juan 50: San Juan leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, San Juan 38: Quito leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, San Juan 55: San Juan leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, San Juan 40: Quito leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and San Juan.

Your match

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

Quito
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Juan
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
QuitoSan Juan

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoSan Juan
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaSpanish, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,850 m3 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoSan Juan
City population1,763,275342,259
People per km²4,7352,847
Museums within 10 km1618
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Quito 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.