VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

London 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 London for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • prices

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. London 25, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. London 84, San Jose 56: London leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, San Jose 36: London leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. London 88, San Jose 33: London leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 15 points.
Day trips. London 90, San Jose 78: London leads by 12 points.
Good for families. London 82, San Jose 65: London leads by 17 points.
Getting around. London 85, San Jose 30: London leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, San Jose 48: London leads by 47 points.
Affordability. London 15, San Jose 20: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, San Jose 38: London leads by 60 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, San Jose 30: London leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and San Jose.

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
LondonSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonSan Jose
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation4 m25 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonSan Jose
City population8,799,7281,013,240
People per km²5,5982,167
Museums within 10 km21619
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 London 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.