VacationSelector
The island church from the lakeshore, Bled
BledThe island church from the lakeshore
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Bled by Philipp Schwarz, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Bled 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 Bled for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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. Bled 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Bled leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Bled 20, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Bled 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Bled 5, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bled 86, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Bled leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Bled 70, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Bled leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Bled 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Bled leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Bled 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Bled leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Bled 5, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Bled 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bled 5, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bled 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Bled leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bled and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Bled
40match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bled in July

27 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
154 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
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
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BledSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Bled's temperatures are measured 36 km from the centre, at Klagenfurt.

Bled 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. Bled: 1991-2020 normals, Klagenfurt (35.5 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBledSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageSloveneSpanish
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
Elevation501 m1,161 m
Main airportLjubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU)31 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBledSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population4,969335,007
People per km²267,511
Museums within 10 km49
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30

Where else could you go?

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