VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Jose or Taipei?

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

  • day trips

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

Choose Taipei for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Taipei leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Taipei 68: Taipei leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Taipei 58: Taipei leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Taipei 78: Taipei leads by 6 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Taipei 76: San Jose leads by 2 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Taipei 72: Taipei leads by 7 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 22 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Taipei 66: Taipei leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Taipei 55: Taipei leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 50 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips with your weighting.

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on getting around and wellness 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
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseTaipei

Where the figures come from

Taipei 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.

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). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseTaipei
Official language-Taiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911110 or 112 or 119
Elevation25 m10 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseTaipei
City population1,013,2402,429,429
People per km²2,1678,938
Museums within 10 km1969
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

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