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A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Montego Bay 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 Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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. Montego Bay 84, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Montego Bay leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Montego Bay leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Montego Bay leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
Best match
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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.

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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
Montego BaySan 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. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m1,161 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySan Jose, Costa Rica
City population123,994335,007
People per km²-7,511
Museums within 10 km09
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montego Bay or San Jose, Costa Rica somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.