VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan
Ushuaia below snow-capped mountains, Ushuaia
UshuaiaUshuaia below snow-capped mountains

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Ushuaia by Jan Tang, Pexels License.

San Juan or Ushuaia?

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
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Ushuaia for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Ushuaia’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, Ushuaia 3: San Juan leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. San Juan 66, Ushuaia 40: San Juan leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, Ushuaia 22: San Juan leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, Ushuaia 18: San Juan leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, Ushuaia 88: Ushuaia leads by 14 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, Ushuaia 14: San Juan leads by 38 points.
Good for families. San Juan 58, Ushuaia 40: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Getting around. San Juan 38, Ushuaia 45: Ushuaia leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, Ushuaia 22: San Juan leads by 28 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, Ushuaia 42: Ushuaia leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan 55, Ushuaia 10: San Juan leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan 40, Ushuaia 26: San Juan leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Juan and Ushuaia.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Ushuaia
31match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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

Ushuaia in July

4 °Cdaytime high
0 °Cnight-time low
36 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
No seasea
8 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanUshuaia

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). Ushuaia: 1991-2020 normals, Ushuaia Aerodrome (1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanUshuaia
Official languageSpanish, EnglishSpanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation3 m23 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsUshuaia - Malvinas Argentinas International Airport (USH)4 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanUshuaia
City population342,25982,615
People per km²2,8473,592
Museums within 10 km185
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Juan or Ushuaia 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.