VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Hiroshima and San Jose are level on 30.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, San Jose 56: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, San Jose 36: Hiroshima leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, San Jose 33: Hiroshima leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, San Jose 78: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, San Jose 30: Hiroshima leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, San Jose 48: Hiroshima leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, San Jose 20: Hiroshima leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima and San Jose are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, San Jose 30: Hiroshima leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and San Jose.

Your match

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

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and prices 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.

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaSan Jose
Official languageJapanese-
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation3 m25 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaSan Jose
City population1,198,0211,013,240
People per km²1,3242,167
Museums within 10 km1819
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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