VacationSelector
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Riga 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 Riga for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Riga 40, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Riga 52, San Juan 66: San Juan leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Riga 66, San Juan 64: Riga leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Riga 52, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Riga 55, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Riga 60, San Juan 52: Riga leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Riga 50, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Riga 68, San Juan 38: Riga leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Riga 45, San Juan 50: San Juan leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Riga 62, San Juan 38: Riga leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Riga 65, San Juan 55: Riga leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Riga 50, San Juan 40: Riga leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Riga and San Juan.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Riga
55match

Wins on getting around and prices 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.

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
RigaSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRigaSan Juan
Official languageLatvianSpanish, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation6 m3 m
Main airportRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-21 days

By the numbers

MeasureRigaSan Juan
City population588,911342,259
People per km²-2,847
Museums within 10 km1218
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Riga 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.