VacationSelector
The fountain in Piazza De Ferrari, Genoa
GenoaThe fountain in Piazza De Ferrari
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Genoa by Faber1893, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Genoa 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 Genoa for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

San Jose, Costa Rica does not lead in any category we score.

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. Genoa 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Genoa leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Genoa 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Genoa leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Genoa 76, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Genoa leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Genoa 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Genoa leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Genoa and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 78.
Day trips. Genoa 83, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Genoa leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Genoa 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Genoa leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Genoa 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Genoa leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Genoa 48, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Genoa leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Genoa 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Genoa leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Genoa 52, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Genoa leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Genoa 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Genoa leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Genoa and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Genoa
Best match
61match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Genoa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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
GenoaSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Genoa 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.

Genoa's sunshine is measured 80 km from the centre, at Capo Mele.

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. Genoa: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (6.7 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGenoaSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation20 m1,161 m
Main airportGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)7 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGenoaSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population558,745335,007
People per km²2,3257,511
Museums within 10 km519
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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