VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Bath 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 Bath for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Bath 10, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Bath leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Bath leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Bath leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Bath leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Bath leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Bath leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Bath leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Bath leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Bath
Best match
51match

Wins on wellness 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.

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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
BathSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation132 m1,161 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population94,092335,007
People per km²3,2457,511
Museums within 10 km179
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath 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). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.