VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

San Jose, Costa Rica does not lead in any category we score.

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. Cape Town 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Cape Town leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Cape Town leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Cape Town leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Cape Town leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Cape Town leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Cape Town leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Cape Town leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Cape Town leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 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
Cape TownSan 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. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m1,161 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population3,776,313335,007
People per km²1,5387,511
Museums within 10 km229
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 Cape Town 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.