VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • 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. Johannesburg 5, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, San Jose 56: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, San Jose 36: Johannesburg leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, San Jose 33: Johannesburg leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, San Jose 48: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, San Jose 20: Johannesburg leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, San Jose 38: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and San Jose.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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
JohannesburgSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgSan Jose
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m25 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgSan Jose
City population4,803,2621,013,240
People per km²2,9222,167
Museums within 10 km1419
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.