VacationSelector
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Luxor 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 Luxor for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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. Luxor 6, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Luxor 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Luxor 95, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Luxor leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Luxor 10, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luxor 32, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Luxor 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Luxor leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Luxor 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Luxor 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Luxor leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Luxor 25, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Luxor 90, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Luxor leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luxor 10, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luxor and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 28.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luxor and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Luxor
38match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
Best match
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Luxor in July

41 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
LuxorSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Luxor 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. Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuxorSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation89 m1,161 m
Main airportLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuxorSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population202,232335,007
People per km²4867,511
Museums within 10 km49
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 Luxor 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). 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.