VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

San Francisco 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 San Francisco for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. San Francisco 25, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, San Juan 66: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, San Juan 64: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, San Juan 74: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, San Juan 52: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, San Juan 58: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, San Juan 38: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, San Juan 50: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, San Juan 38: San Juan leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, San Juan 55: San Francisco leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, San Juan 40: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco 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

San Francisco
59match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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.

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °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
San FranciscoSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoSan 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
Elevation16 m3 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoSan Juan
City population873,965342,259
People per km²1,4552,847
Museums within 10 km5118
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 San Francisco 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.