VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

San Jose or Seoul?

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 San Jose for

  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Seoul for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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. San Jose 30, Seoul 18: San Jose leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 3 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Seoul 77: San Jose leads by 1 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 15 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 37 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Seoul 50: Seoul leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 45 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Jose
45match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseSeoul

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseSeoul
Official language-Korean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Won (KRW)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation25 m38 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseSeoul
City population1,013,2409,668,465
People per km²2,16715,973
Museums within 10 km1981
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose or Seoul 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.