Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
San Juan or Sarasota?
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
- nightlife
- food and drink
- culture and sights
What lies behind each score is written up on San Juan’s own page.
Choose Sarasota for
- families
- wellness
- live music and the arts
What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Juan and Sarasota.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.
Wins on families and wellness 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
Sarasota in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Where the figures come from
Sarasota 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.
Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.
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). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | San Juan | Sarasota |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, English | - |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-4 | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 3 m | 7 m |
| Main airport | Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations | Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 21 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | San Juan | Sarasota |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 342,259 | 54,842 |
| People per km² | 2,847 | 840 |
| Museums within 10 km | 18 | 3 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 8 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Juan or Sarasota somewhere new.