VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

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

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • 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. Ghent 25, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, San Jose 56: Ghent leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, San Jose 36: Ghent leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, San Jose 33: Ghent leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, San Jose 78: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, San Jose 30: Ghent leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, San Jose 48: Ghent leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, San Jose 20: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, San Jose 38: Ghent leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, San Jose 30: Ghent leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and San Jose.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
GhentSan Jose

Where the figures come from

Ghent has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentSan Jose
Official languageFrench, German, Dutch-
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
Elevation12 m25 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentSan Jose
City population272,6571,013,240
People per km²1,7282,167
Museums within 10 km3019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or San Jose somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.