VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Jose or Sorrento?

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

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Sorrento 32: San Jose leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Sorrento 28: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 8 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 17 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Sorrento 42: San Jose leads by 23 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Sorrento 58: Sorrento leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Sorrento 38: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Sorrento 32: Sorrento leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Sorrento 20: San Jose leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Sorrento 48: Sorrento leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose and Sorrento.

Your match

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

San Jose
45match

Wins on families and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Sorrento
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and getting around 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

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseSorrento

Where the figures come from

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

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). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseSorrento
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation25 m50 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseSorrento
City population1,013,24015,407
People per km²2,1671,541
Museums within 10 km196
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose or Sorrento 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.