VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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. Cebu 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Cebu leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Cebu leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Cebu leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Cebu leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Cebu leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Cebu leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Cebu leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Cebu leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Cebu
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CebuSan 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. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCebuSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation135 m1,161 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population965,332335,007
People per km²3,0657,511
Museums within 10 km59
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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