VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

San Jose or Valencia?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Valencia for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Valencia 60: San Jose leads by 12 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Valencia 70: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 10 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 9 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Valencia 55: Valencia leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Valencia 42: Valencia leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Jose
45match

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

Valencia
Best match
65match

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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseValencia

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). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseValencia
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation25 m15 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseValencia
City population1,013,240840,792
People per km²2,1676,242
Museums within 10 km1945
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Valencia 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.