VacationSelector
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Rotterdam 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 Rotterdam for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Jose for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink
  • beaches

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. Rotterdam 27, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Rotterdam 52, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Rotterdam 58, San Jose 36: Rotterdam leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Rotterdam 52, San Jose 33: Rotterdam leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rotterdam 44, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Rotterdam 85, San Jose 78: Rotterdam leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Rotterdam 66, San Jose 65: Rotterdam leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Rotterdam 78, San Jose 30: Rotterdam leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Rotterdam 55, San Jose 48: Rotterdam leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Rotterdam 38, San Jose 20: Rotterdam leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rotterdam 58, San Jose 38: Rotterdam leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rotterdam 42, San Jose 30: Rotterdam leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rotterdam and San Jose.

Your match

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

Rotterdam
Best match
55match

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

San Jose
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
RotterdamSan Jose

Where the figures come from

Rotterdam has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRotterdamSan Jose
Official languageDutch-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)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 number112911
Elevation10 m25 m
Main airportRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureRotterdamSan Jose
City population664,3111,013,240
People per km²2,0802,167
Museums within 10 km4019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rotterdam 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.