VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

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

Charleston 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 Charleston for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Charleston 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Charleston leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Charleston leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Charleston leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Charleston leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Charleston leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Charleston leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Charleston leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 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
CharlestonSan 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. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m1,161 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population150,227335,007
People per km²5327,511
Museums within 10 km199
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

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