VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Acapulco or San Jose?

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 Acapulco for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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. Acapulco 80, San Jose 30: Acapulco leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, San Jose 36: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, San Jose 33: Acapulco leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Acapulco and San Jose are level on 30.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, San Jose 20: Acapulco leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, San Jose 30: Acapulco leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and San Jose.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Acapulco
44match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips 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.

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoSan Jose
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m25 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoSan Jose
City population658,6091,013,240
People per km²3502,167
Museums within 10 km319
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Acapulco or San Jose 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.