VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose for

  • 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. Hong Kong 50, San Jose 30: Hong Kong leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, San Jose 56: Hong Kong leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, San Jose 36: Hong Kong leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, San Jose 33: Hong Kong leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, San Jose 72: Hong Kong leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, San Jose 65: Hong Kong leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, San Jose 30: Hong Kong leads by 67 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, San Jose 48: Hong Kong leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, San Jose 20: Hong Kong leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, San Jose 38: Hong Kong leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, San Jose 30: Hong Kong leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and San Jose.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHong KongSan Jose
Official languageStandard Chinese-
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number999911
Elevation7 m25 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongSan Jose
City population7,413,0701,013,240
People per km²-2,167
Museums within 10 km3919
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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