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 old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Juan or Tampa?

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

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Tampa for

  • families
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: San Juan leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. San Juan 66, Tampa 57: San Juan leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, Tampa 42: San Juan leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, Tampa 52: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, Tampa 55: San Juan leads by 19 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, Tampa 54: Tampa leads by 2 points.
Good for families. San Juan 58, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 20 points.
Getting around. San Juan 38, Tampa 22: San Juan leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, Tampa 40: San Juan leads by 10 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan 55, Tampa 47: San Juan leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan 40, Tampa 30: San Juan leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Juan and Tampa.

Your match

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

San Juan
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

Wins on families 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanTampa
Official languageSpanish, English-
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m30 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanTampa
City population342,259384,959
People per km²2,847848
Museums within 10 km186
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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