VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Jose for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • prices

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. Boston 35, San Jose 30: Boston leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, San Jose 56: Boston leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, San Jose 36: Boston leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, San Jose 33: Boston leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, San Jose 65: Boston leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, San Jose 30: Boston leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, San Jose 48: Boston leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, San Jose 20: San Jose leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, San Jose 38: Boston leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston and San Jose are level on 30.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and San Jose.

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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.

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BostonSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonSan Jose
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation43 m25 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonSan Jose
City population675,6471,013,240
People per km²2,9102,167
Museums within 10 km5119
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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