VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Oaxaca 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 Oaxaca for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Jose for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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. Oaxaca 5, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, San Jose 56: Oaxaca leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, San Jose 36: Oaxaca leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, San Jose 33: Oaxaca leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, San Jose 30: Oaxaca leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, San Jose 48: Oaxaca leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, San Jose 20: Oaxaca leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca and San Jose are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, San Jose 30: Oaxaca leads by 20 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and San Jose.

Your match

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

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaSan Jose
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,555 m25 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaSan Jose
City population258,9131,013,240
People per km²3,0282,167
Museums within 10 km1019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Oaxaca 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.