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 Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Juan or Shanghai?

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

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: San Juan leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. San Juan 66, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, Shanghai 25: San Juan leads by 49 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 38 points.
Good for families. San Juan 58, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 22 points.
Getting around. San Juan 38, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 32 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan 55, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan 40, Shanghai 55: Shanghai 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 Shanghai.

Your match

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

San Juan
57match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanShanghai
Official languageSpanish, EnglishPutonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation3 m4 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanShanghai
City population342,25924,870,895
People per km²2,8473,922
Museums within 10 km1845
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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