VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Alicante 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 Alicante for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose San Jose for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • shopping

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. Alicante 82, San Jose 30: Alicante leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, San Jose 56: Alicante leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, San Jose 36: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, San Jose 33: Alicante leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, San Jose 65: Alicante leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, San Jose 30: Alicante leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, San Jose 20: Alicante leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, San Jose 30: Alicante leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and San Jose.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteSan Jose
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m25 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteSan Jose
City population366,2211,013,240
People per km²1,8192,167
Museums within 10 km819
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.