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 Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace, Split
SplitThe Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Split by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Juan or Split?

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
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Split for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Split’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, Split 75: San Juan leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. San Juan 66, Split 57: San Juan leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, Split 66: Split leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, Split 52: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, Split 77: Split leads by 3 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, Split 78: Split leads by 26 points.
Good for families. San Juan 58, Split 54: San Juan leads by 4 points.
Getting around. San Juan 38, Split 67: Split leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, Split 32: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, Split 45: Split leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan 55, Split 37: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan and Split 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 Split.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

San Juan
57match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Split
57match

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

Split in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
25 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanSplit

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). Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanSplit
Official languageSpanish, EnglishCroatian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m0 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanSplit
City population342,259160,577
People per km²2,847-
Museums within 10 km1811
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Juan or Split 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.