VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb
ZagrebThe Croatian National Theatre

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Zagreb by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Jose or Zagreb?

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

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Zagreb for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Zagreb’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, Zagreb 10: San Jose leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Zagreb 55: San Jose leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Zagreb 56: Zagreb leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Zagreb 47: Zagreb leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Zagreb 62: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Zagreb 60: San Jose leads by 18 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Zagreb 52: San Jose leads by 13 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Zagreb 70: Zagreb leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Zagreb 40: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Zagreb 60: Zagreb leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Zagreb 52: Zagreb leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Zagreb 33: Zagreb leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Jose
45match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Zagreb
Best match
50match

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

Zagreb in July

29 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseZagreb

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). Zagreb: 1991-2020 normals, Zagreb / Gric (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseZagreb
Official language-Croatian
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 m127 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsZagreb Franjo Tuđman International Airport (ZAG)11 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseZagreb
City population1,013,240767,131
People per km²2,167-
Museums within 10 km1927
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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