VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • 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. Lima 42, San Jose 30: Lima leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, San Jose 56: Lima leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, San Jose 36: Lima leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, San Jose 33: Lima leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, San Jose 30: Lima leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, San Jose 48: Lima leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, San Jose 20: Lima leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, San Jose 38: Lima leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and San Jose.

Your match

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

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on prices and food and drink 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.

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
LimaSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaSan Jose
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua-
CurrencySol (PEN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation154 m25 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaSan Jose
City population9,943,8001,013,240
People per km²3,7212,167
Museums within 10 km4719
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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