New York 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 nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and year-round weather with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. New York leads by 56 points.56
| New York | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 8 |
| Swim season months | 3 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 17 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 14 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 14 km |
Places to eat. New York leads by 54 points.54
| New York | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 95 | 41 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 6,032 | 313 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 38 | 16 |
Museums & heritage. New York leads by 34 points.34
| New York | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 26 |
| Museums within 10 km | 119 | 20 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 31 | 9 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 26 | 45 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 0 |
Nightlife. New York leads by 58 points.58
| New York | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 89 | 31 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 4,159 | 231 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 2,015 | 88 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 48 | 38 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 192 | 16 |
Nature & day trips. San Jose leads by 31 points.31
| New York | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 70 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 26 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 2 |
| Land share of disc % | 69 | 91 |
| Park area within 2 km | 134 hectares | 101 hectares |
Good for families. New York leads by 39 points.39
| New York | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 33 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 37 | 2 |
| Park area within 2 km | 134 hectares | 101 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 7 | 2 |
Sights concentration. New York leads by 60 points.60
| New York | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 14 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 268 | 9 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. New York and San Jose are level on 43.
| New York | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. San Jose leads by 27 points.27
| New York | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 85 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.5 °C to 30.1 °C | 15.4 °C to 26.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 74 mm to 112 mm | 0 mm to 78 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 8 |
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. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | New York | San Jose |
|---|---|---|
| TokyoHND, NRT | 13 h 30 m €989-1136 JFK · 21 km | 10 h 25 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 3 h 20 m €201-385 LGA · 13 km | 3 h 25 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 1 h 5 m €203-258 LGA · 13 km | 5 h 15 m €252-262 1 stop SFO · 57 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 1 h 0 m €193-222 JFK · 21 km | 5 h 45 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 20 m €206-234 LGA · 13 km | 4 h 55 m €339-541 1 stop SFO · 57 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 7 h 30 m €445-517 JFK · 21 km | 11 h 15 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 7 h 10 m €459-498 JFK · 21 km | 10 h 50 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 5 h 20 m €314-354 1 stop JFK · 21 km | 1 h 15 m no fares SJC · 8 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 4 h 40 m €374-446 1 stop JFK · 21 km | 4 h 15 m no fares OAK · 56 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 13 h 40 m no fares EWR · 14 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 2026-08 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 | New York | 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-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 25 m | 25 m |
| Main airport | John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre188 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 | New York | San Jose |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 8,804,190 | 1,013,240 |
| People per km² | 7,256 | 2,167 |
| Museums within 10 km | 157 | 19 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 132 | 30 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 3 months | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New York or San Jose somewhere new.