VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Juan or Sao Paulo?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • prices
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: San Juan leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. San Juan 66, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, Sao Paulo 60: San Juan leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, Sao Paulo 48: San Juan leads by 26 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, Sao Paulo 47: San Juan leads by 5 points.
Good for families. San Juan 58, Sao Paulo 52: San Juan leads by 6 points.
Getting around. San Juan 38, Sao Paulo 44: Sao Paulo leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 20 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan 55, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan 40, Sao Paulo 25: San Juan leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Juan and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

San Juan
57match

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

Sao Paulo
58match

Wins on prices and live music and the arts 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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanSao Paulo

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). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanSao Paulo
Official languageSpanish, EnglishPortuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation3 m760 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanSao Paulo
City population342,25911,451,999
People per km²2,8477,519
Museums within 10 km1890
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Sao Paulo 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.