VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Key West 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 Key West for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • 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. Key West 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Key West leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Key West leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Key West leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Key West leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Key West leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Key West leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Key West
Best match
44match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Key West in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Key West's temperatures are measured 69 km from the centre, at Key West Airport.

Key West 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. Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m1,161 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population26,444335,007
People per km²1,4077,511
Museums within 10 km79
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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