VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

San Jose or Wellington?

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
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Wellington 40: San Jose leads by 38 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Wellington 62: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Wellington 42: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose and Wellington are level on 30.
0255075100

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

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 shopping with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseWellington
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation25 m0 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseWellington
City population1,013,240216,200
People per km²2,167487
Museums within 10 km1912
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose or Wellington 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.