VacationSelector
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Istanbul 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 Istanbul for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Istanbul’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. Istanbul 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Istanbul leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Istanbul 87, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Istanbul leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Istanbul 90, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Istanbul leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Istanbul 77, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Istanbul leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul 52, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Istanbul 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Istanbul leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Istanbul 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Istanbul leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Istanbul 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Istanbul leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Istanbul 86, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Istanbul leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Istanbul 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Istanbul leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Istanbul leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul 75, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Istanbul and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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.

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °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
IstanbulSan 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. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulSan 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
Elevation100 m1,161 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population15,655,924335,007
People per km²2,9307,511
Museums within 10 km739
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

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