VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Budapest 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 Budapest for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • beaches

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. Budapest 25, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, San Jose 56: Budapest leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest 80, San Jose 36: Budapest leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, San Jose 33: Budapest leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Budapest 68, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Budapest 62, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Budapest 78, San Jose 30: Budapest leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest 55, San Jose 48: Budapest leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Budapest 62, San Jose 20: Budapest leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest 76, San Jose 38: Budapest leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, San Jose 30: Budapest leads by 68 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and San Jose.

Your match

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

Budapest
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and getting around 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.

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
BudapestSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBudapestSan Jose
Official languageHungarian-
CurrencyForint (HUF)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
Elevation117 m25 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestSan Jose
City population1,675,7771,013,240
People per km²3,1912,167
Museums within 10 km8119
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Budapest 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.