VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Jose or Virginia Beach?

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
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Virginia Beach 42: San Jose leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Virginia Beach 30: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Virginia Beach 37: Virginia Beach leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Virginia Beach 56: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Virginia Beach 64: San Jose leads by 14 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Virginia Beach 27: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Virginia Beach 32: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose and Virginia Beach are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

San Jose
45match

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

Virginia Beach
46match

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
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseVirginia Beach

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). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseVirginia Beach
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 m7 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseVirginia Beach
City population1,013,240459,470
People per km²2,167-
Museums within 10 km192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose or Virginia Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.