VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Jose or Tampa?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Tampa for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Tampa leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Tampa 57: Tampa leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Tampa 55: San Jose leads by 17 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Tampa 54: San Jose leads by 24 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 13 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Tampa 22: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Tampa 40: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose and Tampa are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose and Tampa.

Your match

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

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tampa
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseTampa
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation25 m30 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseTampa
City population1,013,240384,959
People per km²2,167848
Museums within 10 km196
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 Tampa 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.