VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Barcelona 75, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Barcelona leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Barcelona leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Barcelona leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Barcelona leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Barcelona leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Barcelona leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Barcelona leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Barcelona leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaSan 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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation9 m1,161 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population1,731,649335,007
People per km²17,0947,511
Museums within 10 km959
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.