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 Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Juan or Wilmington?

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
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: San Juan leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. San Juan 66, Wilmington 48: San Juan leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. San Juan 64, Wilmington 40: San Juan leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. San Juan 70, Wilmington 40: San Juan leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Juan 74, Wilmington 58: San Juan leads by 16 points.
Day trips. San Juan 52, Wilmington 45: San Juan leads by 7 points.
Good for families. San Juan 58, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 4 points.
Getting around. San Juan 38, Wilmington 28: San Juan leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. San Juan 50, Wilmington 33: San Juan leads by 17 points.
Affordability. San Juan 38, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Juan 55, Wilmington 40: San Juan leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Juan 40, Wilmington 33: San Juan leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Juan and Wilmington.

Your match

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

San Juan
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on families 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San JuanWilmington

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). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JuanWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JuanWilmington
City population342,259115,451
People per km²2,847839
Museums within 10 km182
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Wilmington 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.