VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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. Arequipa 8, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Arequipa leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Arequipa leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Arequipa leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Arequipa leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Arequipa leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Arequipa leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Arequipa
Best match
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on day trips 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.

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation2,335 m1,161 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population1,008,290335,007
People per km²1,5517,511
Museums within 10 km39
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Arequipa or San Jose, Costa Rica 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.