VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Jose or Wilmington?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Wilmington 48: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Wilmington 58: San Jose leads by 14 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Wilmington 45: San Jose leads by 33 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Wilmington 62: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Wilmington 28: San Jose leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Wilmington 33: San Jose leads by 15 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Wilmington 33: Wilmington leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseWilmington

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). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseWilmington
City population1,013,240115,451
People per km²2,167839
Museums within 10 km192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose or Wilmington 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.