VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • getting around

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

Choose San Jose for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Biarritz 68, San Jose 30: Biarritz leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, San Jose 56: Biarritz leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, San Jose 36: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, San Jose 33: Biarritz leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, San Jose 72: Biarritz leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, San Jose 78: Biarritz leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, San Jose 30: Biarritz leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, San Jose 20: Biarritz leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz and San Jose are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, San Jose 30: Biarritz leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and San Jose.

Your match

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

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzSan Jose
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m25 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzSan Jose
City population26,2061,013,240
People per km²2,2402,167
Museums within 10 km819
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.