VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

San Juan or Seattle?

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
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Seattle for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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, Seattle 30: San Juan leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. San Juan and Seattle are level on 66.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, Seattle 50: San Juan leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, Seattle 55: San Juan leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 13 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 3 points.
Good for families. San Juan 58, Seattle 64: Seattle leads by 6 points.
Getting around. San Juan 38, Seattle 60: Seattle leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, Seattle 52: Seattle leads by 2 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, Seattle 22: San Juan leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan 55, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan and Seattle are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Juan and Seattle.

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 prices with your weighting.

Seattle
54match

Wins on getting around 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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanSeattle

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). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanSeattle
Official languageSpanish, English-
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m40 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanSeattle
City population342,259737,015
People per km²2,8471,996
Museums within 10 km1827
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Juan or Seattle 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.