VacationSelector
A paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz, Fethiye
FethiyeA paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Fethiye by rheins, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Fethiye 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 Fethiye for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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. Fethiye 82, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Fethiye leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Fethiye 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Fethiye leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Fethiye 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Fethiye 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Fethiye leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fethiye 84, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Fethiye leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Fethiye 76, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Fethiye leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Fethiye 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Fethiye leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Fethiye 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Fethiye leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Fethiye 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Fethiye leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Fethiye 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Fethiye leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fethiye 15, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fethiye 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Fethiye leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fethiye and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Fethiye
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fethiye in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
26 °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
FethiyeSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Fethiye's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Fethiye has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Fethiye: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (30.8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFethiyeSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageTurkishSpanish
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m1,161 m
Main airportDalaman International Airport (DLM)30 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureFethiyeSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population182,200335,007
People per km²-7,511
Museums within 10 km19
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Fethiye 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.