Portland 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 places to eat 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.
The verdict
Choose Portland if you are going for the eating and drinking: many more restaurants and a wider range of kitchens near the centre, more bars and clubs, and more to walk to. Best in July and August.
Choose San Jose if you want warmth across a longer season and open land, with 26% of the surrounding area protected and much more park space near the centre.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. San Jose leads by 8 points.8
| Portland | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 8 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 27 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 69 km | 14 km |
| Water distance | — | 14 km |
Places to eat. Portland leads by 33 points.33
| Portland | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 41 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,011 | 313 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 44 | 16 |
Museums & heritage. Portland leads by 9 points.9
| Portland | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 26 |
| Museums within 10 km | 23 | 20 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 15 | 9 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 65 | 45 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Portland leads by 27 points.27
| Portland | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 31 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 942 | 231 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 518 | 88 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 55 | 38 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 32 | 16 |
Nature & day trips. San Jose leads by 35 points.35
| Portland | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 70 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 13 | 26 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 3 | 2 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 91 |
| Park area within 2 km | 37 hectares | 101 hectares |
Good for families. Portland leads by 1 points.1
| Portland | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 34 | 33 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 8 | 2 |
| Park area within 2 km | 37 hectares | 101 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Portland leads by 21 points.21
| Portland | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 14 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 29 | 9 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Portland and San Jose are level on 43.
| Portland | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. San Jose leads by 20 points.20
| Portland | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 85 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.9 °C to 27.7 °C | 15.4 °C to 26.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 13 mm to 145 mm | 0 mm to 78 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 8 |
Where they differ
Portland has about three times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider spread of kitchens, plus many more places to drink and more nightclubs. It also holds about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, so more of a trip there happens on foot.
San Jose's strength is outside the streets: 26% of the land around it is protected against 13% around Portland, and it has about three times as much park space near the centre.
Where they are alike
For families the two land in much the same place by different routes: Portland has many more tourist attractions near the centre, San Jose about three times as much park space, and both have 2 theme parks within reach.
Neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, San Jose's peaking at 15°C in August. Museum offerings are modest on both sides, and neither has a UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone whose trip is built around dinner and a drink afterwards should take Portland: many more restaurants near the centre, a wider range of kitchens, and more bars and clubs, most of them walkable from the middle.
Walkers and anyone who wants a day outside the city should take San Jose, where 26% of the surrounding land is protected and there is about three times as much park space close to the centre.
Families can go either way. Portland has many more attractions near the centre, San Jose more green space, and both have 2 theme parks within reach, so the timing of your trip decides it.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure here is a national price level, identical for both cities by construction, so it tells you nothing about which of these two is cheaper. There is no daily budget figure for either, so no cost comparison between them is possible at all.
No weather station near either city records sunshine hours, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured; the monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature. Portland's 27 beaches sit beside water that never reaches 21°C, so they are for walking rather than swimming.
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. Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).
Portland is at its best in July and August, when highs reach 28°C and rainfall drops below 15mm. The rest of the year is cooler and much wetter, and by December highs sit at 8°C with 145mm of rain.
San Jose's usable stretch is much longer, running May to October with highs of 23-27°C and barely any rain in the middle of it. Even in January the daytime high is 15°C, so a winter trip still works.
Getting there
| Flying from | Portland | San Jose |
|---|---|---|
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 2 h 15 m no fares PDX · 10 km | 1 h 15 m no fares SJC · 8 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 5 h 20 m no fares PDX · 10 km | 5 h 35 m €286-328 1 stop SFO · 57 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 3 h 45 m no fares PDX · 10 km | 3 h 25 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| PhoenixPHX, AZA | 2 h 35 m no fares PDX · 10 km | 1 h 50 m €156-170 1 stop SJC · 8 km |
| VancouverYVR, YDT | 1 h 10 m no fares PDX · 10 km | 2 h 10 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 3 h 55 m no fares PDX · 10 km | 4 h 5 m no fares SJC · 8 km |
| SeattleSEA, BFI | 55 m no fares PDX · 10 km | 2 h 0 m no fares SJC · 8 km |
| DenverDEN, APA | 2 h 30 m €167-182 PDX · 10 km | 2 h 25 m no fares SJC · 8 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 10 h 30 m no fares PDX · 10 km | 11 h 25 m no fares SFO · 57 km |
| GuadalajaraGDL | 4 h 35 m no fares PDX · 10 km | 3 h 45 m no fares SJC · 8 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 2026-09 to 2026-09, 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 | Portland | 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-8, UTC-7 in summer | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 152 m | 25 m |
| Main airport | Portland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre87 non-stop destinations | Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre17 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Portland | San Jose |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 652,503 | 1,013,240 |
| People per km² | 1,736 | 2,167 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 19 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 82 | 30 |
| 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 Portland or San Jose somewhere new.