VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Baku 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 Baku for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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. Baku 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Baku leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Baku leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Baku leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Baku leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 48 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Baku leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Baku leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Baku leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Baku leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Baku leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Baku leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Baku
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BakuSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

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. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-6
Emergency number102 or 112911
Elevation-28 m1,161 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population2,300,500335,007
People per km²1,0757,511
Museums within 10 km509
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.