VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • wellness

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. Lima 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Lima leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Lima leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Lima leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Lima leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Lima leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Lima leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Lima leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Lima leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on food and drink and beaches with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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
LimaSan 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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation154 m1,161 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population9,943,800335,007
People per km²3,7217,511
Museums within 10 km479
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lima 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.