VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Lisbon 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 Lisbon for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose San Jose for

  • 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. Lisbon 50, San Jose 30: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, San Jose 56: Lisbon leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, San Jose 36: Lisbon leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, San Jose 33: Lisbon leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, San Jose 72: Lisbon leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, San Jose 78: Lisbon leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, San Jose 30: Lisbon leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, San Jose 48: Lisbon leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, San Jose 20: Lisbon leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, San Jose 38: Lisbon leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, San Jose 30: Lisbon leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonSan Jose
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation100 m25 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonSan Jose
City population545,7961,013,240
People per km²5,4532,167
Museums within 10 km8019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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