VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Jose or Thessaloniki?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Thessaloniki leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Thessaloniki 66: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Thessaloniki 74: San Jose leads by 4 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Thessaloniki 50: San Jose leads by 15 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 2 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Thessaloniki 52: Thessaloniki leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Thessaloniki 33: Thessaloniki leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Jose
45match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on prices 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseThessaloniki
Official language-Greek
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation25 m6 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseThessaloniki
City population1,013,240309,617
People per km²2,16716,042
Museums within 10 km1932
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Thessaloniki 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.