VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • 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. Hiroshima 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Hiroshima leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Hiroshima leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Hiroshima leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Hiroshima leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Hiroshima leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Hiroshima leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Hiroshima leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Hiroshima leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Hiroshima leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Hiroshima leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on 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.

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °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
HiroshimaSan 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. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation3 m1,161 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population1,198,021335,007
People per km²1,3247,511
Museums within 10 km189
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Hiroshima or San Jose, Costa Rica somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.