VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • 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. Cape Town 58, San Jose 30: Cape Town leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, San Jose 56: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, San Jose 36: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, San Jose 33: Cape Town leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, San Jose 72: Cape Town leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, San Jose 30: Cape Town leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, San Jose 48: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, San Jose 20: Cape Town leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, San Jose 38: Cape Town leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, San Jose 30: Cape Town leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and San Jose.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownSan Jose
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m25 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownSan Jose
City population3,776,3131,013,240
People per km²1,5382,167
Museums within 10 km2219
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town 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.