VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Faro 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 Faro for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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. Faro 74, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Faro leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Faro leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Faro leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Faro leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Faro leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Faro leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Faro leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Faro
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 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
FaroSan 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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m1,161 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population64,560335,007
People per km²3197,511
Museums within 10 km29
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

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