VacationSelector
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Manchester 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 Manchester for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • prices

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. Manchester 9, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Manchester 51, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Manchester leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Manchester 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Manchester leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Manchester 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Manchester leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manchester 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Manchester 77, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Manchester leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Manchester 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Manchester leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Manchester 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Manchester leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Manchester 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Manchester leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Manchester 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manchester 74, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Manchester leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manchester 15, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manchester and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Manchester
Best match
54match

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

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 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
ManchesterSan 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. Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManchesterSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation38 m1,161 m
Main airportManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureManchesterSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population547,627335,007
People per km²4,7377,511
Museums within 10 km289
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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