VacationSelector
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Puerto Princesa 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 Puerto Princesa for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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. Puerto Princesa 58, San Jose 30: Puerto Princesa leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Princesa 38, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Princesa 22, San Jose 36: San Jose leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Princesa 26, San Jose 33: San Jose leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Princesa 80, San Jose 72: Puerto Princesa leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Puerto Princesa 12, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 66 points.
Good for families. Puerto Princesa 45, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Puerto Princesa and San Jose are level on 30.
Shopping & style. Puerto Princesa 20, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Puerto Princesa 78, San Jose 20: Puerto Princesa leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Princesa 10, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Princesa 40, San Jose 30: Puerto Princesa leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Princesa and San Jose.

Your match

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

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Jose
Best match
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.

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto PrincesaSan Jose

Where the figures come from

Puerto Princesa has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PrincesaSan Jose
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation98 m25 m
Main airportPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PrincesaSan Jose
City population316,3841,013,240
People per km²1332,167
Museums within 10 km119
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Puerto Princesa or San Jose somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.