VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Vancouver by Xicotencatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Juan or Vancouver?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: San Juan leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. San Juan 66, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, Vancouver 42: San Juan leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, Vancouver 42: San Juan leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 23 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, Vancouver 45: San Juan leads by 7 points.
Good for families. San Juan 58, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 14 points.
Getting around. San Juan 38, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 5 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, Vancouver 27: San Juan leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan 55, Vancouver 52: San Juan leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan 40, Vancouver 50: Vancouver 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 Vancouver.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

San Juan
57match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Vancouver
56match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanVancouver

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). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanVancouver
Official languageSpanish, EnglishFrench, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m2 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanVancouver
City population342,259662,248
People per km²2,8475,759
Museums within 10 km1826
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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