VacationSelector
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Perth 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 Perth for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Jose for

  • 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. Perth 86, San Jose 30: Perth leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Perth 58, San Jose 56: Perth leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Perth 42, San Jose 36: Perth leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Perth 42, San Jose 33: Perth leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Perth and San Jose are level on 72.
Day trips. Perth 48, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Perth 74, San Jose 65: Perth leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Perth 55, San Jose 30: Perth leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Perth 44, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Perth 28, San Jose 20: Perth leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Perth 50, San Jose 38: Perth leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Perth 38, San Jose 30: Perth leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Perth and San Jose.

Your match

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

Perth
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips 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.

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
10 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
PerthSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePerthSan Jose
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation2 m25 m
Main airportPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePerthSan Jose
City population2,141,8341,013,240
People per km²3342,167
Museums within 10 km1519
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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