VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • getting around
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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. Interlaken 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Interlaken leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Interlaken leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Interlaken leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Interlaken leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Interlaken leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Interlaken
41match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on prices 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.

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation571 m1,161 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population6,123335,007
People per km²1,4247,511
Museums within 10 km39
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.