VacationSelector
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cork 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 Cork for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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. Cork 25, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Cork 58, San Jose 56: Cork leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cork 40, San Jose 36: Cork leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Cork 40, San Jose 33: Cork leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cork 62, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cork 68, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Cork 50, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cork 58, San Jose 30: Cork leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Cork 40, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cork 33, San Jose 20: Cork leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cork 45, San Jose 38: Cork leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cork 22, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cork and San Jose.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Cork
45match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CorkSan Jose

Where the figures come from

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCorkSan Jose
Official languageEnglish, Irish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m25 m
Main airportCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCorkSan Jose
City population222,3331,013,240
People per km²5,9612,167
Museums within 10 km519
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 Cork 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.