VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Orange Beach 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 Orange Beach for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose San Jose for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • 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. Orange Beach 86, San Jose 30: Orange Beach leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, San Jose 36: San Jose leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, San Jose 33: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, San Jose 65: Orange Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, San Jose 20: Orange Beach leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach 32, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, San Jose 30: Orange Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and San Jose.

Your match

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

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Jose
Best match
45match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Orange BeachSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachSan Jose
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m25 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachSan Jose
City population8,0951,013,240
People per km²1962,167
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Orange Beach 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). 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.