VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Madrid 5, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, San Jose 56: Madrid leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, San Jose 36: Madrid leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, San Jose 33: Madrid leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, San Jose 78: Madrid leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, San Jose 65: Madrid leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, San Jose 30: Madrid leads by 54 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, San Jose 48: Madrid leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, San Jose 20: Madrid leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, San Jose 38: Madrid leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, San Jose 30: Madrid leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and San Jose.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on beaches 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.

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
MadridSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridSan Jose
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m25 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridSan Jose
City population3,506,7301,013,240
People per km²5,8012,167
Museums within 10 km8819
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 Madrid 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.