Los Angeles or San Jose?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on sights concentration and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Los Angeles if you want a city where the sights, restaurants and bars are concentrated enough to walk between, with many times more notable places within reach of the centre and the wider choice of kitchens.
Choose San Jose if you would rather be outdoors. Much more park space near the centre, 1 beach nearby, and warmer summers, up to 27°C in July.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Los Angeles leads by 21 points.21
| Los Angeles | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 8 |
| Beaches 25 km | 11 | — |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 1 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Warmest sea temp | 20.2 °C | — |
| Scoring variant | beachScoreWideRing | — |
| Declared | 2026-08-25 | — |
| Register | seed/editorial-overrides.json | — |
| Coast distance | — | 14 km |
| Water distance | — | 14 km |
Places to eat. Los Angeles leads by 25 points.25
| Los Angeles | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 41 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,337 | 313 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 22 | 16 |
Museums & heritage. Los Angeles leads by 23 points.23
| Los Angeles | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 26 |
| Museums within 10 km | 69 | 20 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 23 | 9 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 33 | 45 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
Nightlife. Los Angeles leads by 23 points.23
| Los Angeles | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 31 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 660 | 231 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 432 | 88 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 38 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 64 | 16 |
Nature & day trips. San Jose leads by 8 points.8
| Los Angeles | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 70 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 26 | 26 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 2 |
| Land share of disc % | 80 | 91 |
| Park area within 2 km | 20 hectares | 101 hectares |
Good for families. Los Angeles and San Jose are level on 33.
| Los Angeles | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 33 | 33 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 2 |
| Park area within 2 km | 20 hectares | 101 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Los Angeles leads by 40 points.40
| Los Angeles | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 14 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 88 | 9 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Los Angeles and San Jose are level on 43.
| Los Angeles | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Los Angeles leads by 2 points.2
| Los Angeles | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 87 | 85 |
| Monthly daytime high | 18.6 °C to 24.7 °C | 15.4 °C to 26.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 0 mm to 76 mm | 0 mm to 78 mm |
| Dry months | 8 | 8 |
Where they differ
Los Angeles packs many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and many times as many restaurants near it, across a somewhat wider range of kitchens. It also has about three times as many places to drink and many times as many nightclubs, most of them central, where in San Jose about half sit near the centre.
San Jose answers with the outdoors: many times as much park space near the centre, and 1 beach nearby where Los Angeles has none.
Where they are alike
On families the two land in the same place. Each has 2 theme parks within reach, and the difference is only in kind: Los Angeles has many times as many tourist attractions near the centre, San Jose many times as much park space.
Weather and day trips are close too. 26% of the land around each is protected, giving both similar countryside for a day out, and both have 8 months at 40mm of rain or less.
Which traveller are you?
Museums and restaurants first: Los Angeles. About three times as many museums, 1 UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach, and enough notable places close to the centre that a day can be walked rather than driven.
Walking, parks and time outside: San Jose. Much more park space near the centre, 26% of the surrounding land protected, and 1 beach nearby, though the sea peaks at 15°C.
Families can go either way. Both have 2 theme parks within reach; Los Angeles concentrates attractions near the centre, while San Jose trades those for open park space, which suits younger children on a slower trip.
What the numbers don't tell you
The two carry the same value rating, and that is a national price level applied to both, not a finding about either. No daily budget figure exists for Los Angeles or San Jose, so no cost comparison between them is possible here: treat the value line as carrying no information.
Sunshine hours are not recorded near either city, so that side of the weather is unmeasured rather than poor; the monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. And warm air is not warm water: neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).
Los Angeles holds a narrow band, 19-25°C across the year, and its best stretch runs July to October, when the rain all but stops and the sea reaches 20°C. Midwinter is mild by day but wet, at 73-76mm a month.
San Jose's window is June to September, with highs of 26-27°C and dry weeks throughout. Its winters are colder, down to 15°C by day, and February is the wettest month at 78mm, so a spring or autumn trip reads better there.
Getting there
| Flying from | Los Angeles | San Jose |
|---|---|---|
| TokyoHND, NRT | 11 h 0 m €785-892 1 stop LAX · 19 km | 10 h 25 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 5 h 20 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 5 h 35 m €286-328 1 stop SFO · 57 km |
| VancouverYVR, YDT | 2 h 45 m €166-318 1 stop LAX · 19 km | 2 h 10 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 3 h 0 m €188-208 LAX · 19 km | 3 h 25 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| Salt Lake CitySLC | 1 h 45 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 1 h 45 m no fares SJC · 8 km |
| Las VegasLAS | 1 h 5 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 1 h 25 m no fares SJC · 8 km |
| PhoenixPHX, AZA | 1 h 20 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 1 h 50 m €156-170 1 stop SJC · 8 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 11 h 25 m €600-640 1 stop LAX · 19 km | 11 h 15 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 3 h 35 m €261-303 1 stop LAX · 19 km | 4 h 15 m no fares OAK · 56 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 16 h 25 m €964-1015 LAX · 19 km | 16 h 0 m €1,005-1027 1 stop SFO · 57 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Los Angeles | San Jose |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 106 m | 25 m |
| Main airport | Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre180 non-stop destinations | Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre17 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Los Angeles | San Jose |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 3,898,747 | 1,013,240 |
| People per km² | 2,994 | 2,167 |
| Museums within 10 km | 38 | 19 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 46 | 30 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Angeles or San Jose somewhere new.