VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
Minato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock, Yokohama
YokohamaMinato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Yokohama by Yoshio Kohara, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

San Jose or Yokohama?

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

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

Choose Yokohama for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Yokohama’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, Yokohama 46: Yokohama leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Yokohama 72: Yokohama leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Yokohama 55: Yokohama leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Yokohama 44: Yokohama leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Yokohama 66: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 8 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 21 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Yokohama 87: Yokohama leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 12 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Yokohama 55: Yokohama leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Yokohama 56: Yokohama leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose and Yokohama.

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 with your weighting.

Yokohama
Best match
64match

Wins on getting around 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

Yokohama in July

28 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseYokohama

Where the figures come from

Yokohama's sunshine is measured 29 km from the centre, at Tokyo.

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). Yokohama: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Yokohama (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseYokohama
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation25 m24 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseYokohama
City population1,013,2403,757,630
People per km²2,1678,585
Museums within 10 km1938
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 Yokohama 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.