VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Alta, Utah or San Jose, Costa Rica?

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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose, Costa Rica’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. Alta, Utah 3, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Alta, Utah leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Alta, Utah leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Alta, Utah leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

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

San Jose, Costa Rica
Best match
41match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

San Jose, Costa Rica's station stands 241 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,610 m1,161 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population228335,007
People per km²197,511
Museums within 10 km09
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or San Jose, Costa Rica somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.