VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices

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. Hong Kong 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Hong Kong leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Hong Kong leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Hong Kong leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Hong Kong leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Hong Kong leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Hong Kong leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Hong Kong leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Hong Kong leads by 67 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Hong Kong leads by 52 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Hong Kong leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Hong Kong leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongSan 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. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHong KongSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageStandard ChineseSpanish
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number999911
Elevation7 m1,161 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population7,413,070335,007
People per km²-7,511
Museums within 10 km399
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hong Kong 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). 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.