VacationSelector
Rozenhoedkaai and the Belfry, Bruges
BrugesRozenhoedkaai and the Belfry
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

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

Bruges 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 Bruges for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • 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. Bruges 28, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Bruges leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Bruges 56, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Bruges leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Bruges 75, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Bruges leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Bruges 27, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bruges 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Bruges 85, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Bruges leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Bruges 54, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Bruges leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bruges 78, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Bruges leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Bruges 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Bruges leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Bruges 36, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bruges 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Bruges leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bruges 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Bruges leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bruges and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Bruges
Best match
50match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bruges in July

21 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 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
BrugesSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Bruges 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.

Bruges's sunshine is measured 37 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

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. Bruges: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zeebrugge / Zeemanshaard (15.8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrugesSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageFrench, German, DutchSpanish
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
Elevation2 m1,161 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)94 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrugesSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population118,509335,007
People per km²8407,511
Museums within 10 km389
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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