VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Helsinki 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 Helsinki for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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. Helsinki 28, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, San Jose 36: Helsinki leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, San Jose 33: Helsinki leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, San Jose 65: Helsinki leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, San Jose 30: Helsinki leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, San Jose 48: Helsinki leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, San Jose 20: Helsinki leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, San Jose 38: Helsinki leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, San Jose 30: Helsinki leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki and San Jose.

Your match

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

Helsinki
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and wellness with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips 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.

Helsinki in July

22 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiSan Jose
Official languageFinnish, Swedish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation17 m25 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiSan Jose
City population694,3921,013,240
People per km²3,2392,167
Museums within 10 km7419
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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