VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Biarritz’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. Biarritz 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Biarritz leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Biarritz leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Biarritz leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Biarritz leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Biarritz leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Biarritz leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Biarritz leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
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.

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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
BiarritzSan 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. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m1,161 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population26,206335,007
People per km²2,2407,511
Museums within 10 km89
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz 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.