VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

San Juan or Valletta?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Valletta for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: San Juan leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. San Juan 66, Valletta 55: San Juan leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, Valletta 46: San Juan leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, Valletta 56: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 24 points.
Good for families. San Juan and Valletta are level on 58.
Getting around. San Juan 38, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, Valletta 38: San Juan leads by 12 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, Valletta 50: Valletta leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan 55, Valletta 44: San Juan leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan 40, Valletta 32: San Juan leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Juan and Valletta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

San Juan
57match

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

Valletta
55match

Wins on day trips 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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanValletta

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). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanValletta
Official languageSpanish, EnglishEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m56 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanValletta
City population342,2595,197
People per km²2,8476,496
Museums within 10 km1816
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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