VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Juan or San Miguel de Allende?

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 Juan for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’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 Juan 84, San Miguel de Allende 4: San Juan leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. San Juan 66, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Juan leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Juan leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, San Miguel de Allende 38: San Juan leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Juan leads by 34 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 25 points.
Good for families. San Juan 58, San Miguel de Allende 32: San Juan leads by 26 points.
Getting around. San Juan 38, San Miguel de Allende 48: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 5 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, San Miguel de Allende 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan 55, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Juan leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan 40, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Juan and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

San Juan
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanSan Miguel de Allende

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageSpanish, EnglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m1,900 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanSan Miguel de Allende
City population342,25969,811
People per km²2,847-
Museums within 10 km182
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Juan or San Miguel de Allende 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.