VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Montpellier 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 Montpellier for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose San Jose for

  • families
  • shopping

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. Montpellier 64, San Jose 30: Montpellier leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, San Jose 56: Montpellier leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, San Jose 36: Montpellier leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, San Jose 33: Montpellier leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier and San Jose are level on 72.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, San Jose 78: Montpellier leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, San Jose 30: Montpellier leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, San Jose 20: Montpellier leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, San Jose 38: Montpellier leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, San Jose 30: Montpellier leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and San Jose.

Your match

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

Montpellier
Best match
62match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on families and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Montpellier in July

30 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
17 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
21 °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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierSan Jose
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m25 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierSan Jose
City population310,2401,013,240
People per km²5,4522,167
Museums within 10 km1419
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 Montpellier 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.