VacationSelector
A dhow below the towers of West Bay, Doha
DohaA dhow below the towers of West Bay
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Doha by Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Doha 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 Doha for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • 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. Doha 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Doha leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Doha 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Doha leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Doha 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Doha leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Doha 20, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Doha 7, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 71 points.
Day trips. Doha 5, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Doha 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Doha leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Doha 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Doha leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Doha 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Doha leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Doha 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Doha 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Doha 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Doha leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Doha and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Doha
38match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
Best match
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Doha in July

43 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
33 °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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
DohaSan 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. Doha: 1991-2020 normals, Doha International Airport (5.5 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDohaSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyQatari Rial (QAR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6
Emergency number999911
Elevation0 m1,161 m
Main airportHamad International Airport (DOH)8 km from centre195 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDohaSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population1,186,023335,007
People per km²8,9857,511
Museums within 10 km69
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Doha 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.