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 City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

San Juan or Valencia?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Valencia for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: San Juan leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. San Juan 66, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, Valencia 66: San Juan leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, Valencia 60: San Juan leads by 14 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, Valencia 70: Valencia leads by 18 points.
Good for families. San Juan 58, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 17 points.
Getting around. San Juan 38, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 7 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan and Valencia are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan 40, Valencia 42: Valencia leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Juan and Valencia.

Your match

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

San Juan
57match

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

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on getting around and prices 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanValencia

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). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanValencia
Official languageSpanish, EnglishSpanish
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 m15 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanValencia
City population342,259840,792
People per km²2,8476,242
Museums within 10 km1845
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Valencia 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.