VacationSelector
The Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town, Marbella
MarbellaThe Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Marbella 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 Marbella for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Marbella 76, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Marbella leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Marbella leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Marbella leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Marbella leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Marbella leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Marbella leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Marbella leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Marbella leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marbella and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Marbella in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 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
MarbellaSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Marbella's temperatures are measured 40 km from the centre, at Malaga / Aeropuerto.

Marbella 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. Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m1,161 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population159,786335,007
People per km²1,3987,511
Museums within 10 km69
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marbella 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.