VacationSelector
Skiers among snow-covered firs, Beaver Creek
Beaver CreekSkiers among snow-covered firs
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Beaver Creek by Joe Lin, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Beaver Creek 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 Beaver Creek for

  • wellness
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Beaver Creek 6, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Beaver Creek 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Beaver Creek 7, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Beaver Creek 12, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beaver Creek 90, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Beaver Creek leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Beaver Creek 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Beaver Creek 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Beaver Creek leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Beaver Creek 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Beaver Creek leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Beaver Creek 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Beaver Creek 5, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beaver Creek 36, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beaver Creek 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Beaver Creek leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beaver Creek and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Beaver Creek
35match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
Best match
41match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Beaver Creek in July

29 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Beaver CreekSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Beaver Creek's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Eagle County / Gypsum.

Beaver Creek's station stands 268 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Beaver Creek 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. Beaver Creek: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Eagle County / Gypsum (33.8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeaver CreekSan 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
Elevation2,264 m1,161 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)34 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeaver CreekSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population-335,007
People per km²-7,511
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 Beaver Creek or San Jose, Costa Rica somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.