San Juan

Is San Juan safe?

For most visitors, yes, but it is not as safe as it feels on a Condado beach. San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, a US territory, recorded 76 murders in 2025 up to 30 November, according to police statistics reported by NotiCel, up from 69 in 2024. On the Census Bureau's estimate of 332,454 residents, that is about 25 per 100,000 a year, several times Miami and in the same range as Nassau.

Most of it is tied to crime groups rather than to visitors. Island-wide, police say four in ten murders investigated in 2026 were linked to drug trafficking, three in ten to feuds between criminal groups, and nine in ten involved guns. The risks a visitor is more likely to meet are theft from a car, a fight outside a bar, a crash on a fast avenue or a hurricane. We score San Juan 55.

Where the trouble is for visitors

The places visitors use are mostly calm: Old San Juan with its forts and cruise piers, Condado, Ocean Park, and the Isla Verde hotel strip just over the line in Carolina. But 2025 showed that nightlife spots are not immune.

In August 2025, a 25-year-old New York tourist who had come for Bad Bunny's concert residency was shot dead in La Perla, the barrio below the old city walls. The mayor said it was the first violent death there since 2021 and put eight municipal officers on 24-hour patrol. In late December, a Florida tourist was shot outside a bar on Calle San Sebastián, Old San Juan's main nightlife street, after a fight spilled outside; police arrested five people at the scene.

Neither case looks like tourists being targeted. Both happened after midnight in crowded spots where a fight turned into a shooting. The practical advice follows from that: leave when an argument starts, and do not linger in La Perla at night.

Theft and car break-ins

Recorded theft is low for a US jurisdiction. Police logged 9,061 thefts across Puerto Rico in 2025 up to 30 November, and Carolina, which includes Isla Verde, had the most of any municipality at 1,031. Many small thefts are never reported, so treat these as a floor.

The main risk is your car. The UK Foreign Office warns that gangs target vehicles driven by people who look like tourists and says never to leave passports in a rental car, especially in the boot. At beaches such as Ocean Park and Escambrón, take only what you need onto the sand and leave nothing visible in the car.

Walking at night

Gallup's 2025 survey puts the US at 71% of people feeling safe walking alone at night, but San Juan's murder rate is far above the US average. Old San Juan's central streets, the Condado strip along Ashford Avenue and Isla Verde stay lively late. Quiet side streets are best avoided on foot after dark, and Santurce's La Placita bar district is one of the crowded nightlife areas the city names in its security plans. Ride apps are cheap and the easiest way back to your hotel.

Roads and pedestrians

Traffic kills more people in San Juan than many visitors expect. NHTSA's crash database counts 35 road deaths in the municipality in 2024, about 10.5 per 100,000, up from 26 in 2023. Half of the 2024 dead, 18 people, were pedestrians. Wide roads, fast drivers and long gaps between crossings make walking risky outside the old city. Cross at signals and watch for cars turning across your path.

Hurricanes, earthquakes and power cuts

The hurricane season runs from June to November. Hurricane Maria crossed the island in September 2017 with winds just below Category 5 strength, knocked down 80% of Puerto Rico's utility poles and left almost the whole island without power and many without water. The government estimates 2,975 people died, counting direct and indirect deaths. The UK Foreign Office also lists Puerto Rico among the US areas at higher risk of earthquakes.

Power cuts are not only a hurricane problem. On 16 April 2025 an island-wide blackout cut power to 1.4 million customers and left more than 400,000 without water, the second such outage in under four months, according to AP. Puerto Rico's energy regulator later traced it to vegetation on a transmission line run by the private grid operator, LUMA, and outages in summer 2026 again left hundreds of thousands of customers without power, El Nuevo Día reports. Ask whether your hotel or rental has a backup generator before you book.

Air is clean: EPA monitors in neighbouring Guaynabo and Bayamón averaged 7.0 and 6.4 µg/m³ of fine particlesPM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary over 2023 to 2025. The UK Foreign Office lists Zika among the health risks. US laws and the 911 emergency number apply, as on the mainland.

How to stay safe in San Juan

• Stay in Old San Juan, Condado, Ocean Park or Isla Verde.
• Use a ride app after dark rather than walking between neighbourhoods.
• Leave a bar or street party if a fight starts.
• Keep passports and bags out of rental cars.
• In hurricane season, buy insurance that covers storms and know your hotel's evacuation plan.

For healthcare costs and entry rules that apply in Puerto Rico too, see our United States page. If you are comparing Caribbean beach cities, Punta Cana has lower crime but far deadlier roads.

How we scored it

Health (75) is the strongest factor, thanks to clean air, though frequent power cuts hold it below Miami. Violent crime (40) is the weakest: a murder rate of about 25 per 100,000 is close to Nassau and Kingston, even though visitors are rarely the target. Hurricane exposure (45) and pedestrian deaths on the roads (49) keep the score down, while theft (64) is about level with Miami.