VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Lucerne 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 Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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. Lucerne 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Lucerne leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Lucerne leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Lucerne leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Lucerne leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 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
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Lucerne 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.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

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. Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSan 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
Elevation436 m1,161 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population86,234335,007
People per km²2,9637,511
Museums within 10 km149
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

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