VacationSelector
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Oslo 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 Oslo for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • families

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. Oslo 36, San Jose 30: Oslo leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Oslo 55, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Oslo 66, San Jose 36: Oslo leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Oslo 48, San Jose 33: Oslo leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oslo 82, San Jose 72: Oslo leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Oslo 52, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Oslo 63, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Oslo 85, San Jose 30: Oslo leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. Oslo 50, San Jose 48: Oslo leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Oslo 14, San Jose 20: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oslo 62, San Jose 38: Oslo leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oslo 60, San Jose 30: Oslo leads by 30 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Oslo
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
OsloSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsloSan Jose
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi-
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)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 numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110911
Elevation23 m25 m
Main airportOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsloSan Jose
City population717,7101,013,240
People per km²-2,167
Museums within 10 km6019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oslo 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.