Monteverde or San Jose, Costa Rica?

Neither is a beach destination. Both sit in the highlands about two hours from the sea, and the good Pacific beaches are further still. San Jose has a slight edge, because the run to Jaco or Puntarenas is a standard transfer from the capital and hotel pools give you somewhere to swim in town. Monteverde's way down to the Gulf of Nicoya is a winding mountain road, and up on the ridge there is nowhere to swim at all.

Both serve the same plain Costa Rican cooking: casados at sodas and coffee grown on nearby slopes. Monteverde's eating is concentrated in Santa Elena and along the reserve road, with a few lodge restaurants and little choice after dark. What it has that the capital lacks is the source itself, with coffee farm tours and cheese from the dairy the Quaker settlers founded.

San Jose simply has more of everything. There are sodas on every block, lunch counters in the Mercado Central, the modern restaurant strip of Barrio Escalante and international dining in Escazu, so you can eat somewhere different every night.

Monteverde's cultural interest is its story rather than its sights. Quaker families arrived in the early 1950s, farmed dairy and helped protect the forest. The insect and butterfly exhibits are really nature outings.

San Jose is no architectural city, but it has a day or two of real sights: the gilded Teatro Nacional built with coffee money, the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum and the Jade Museum, and the National Museum inside the bullet-marked Bellavista fortress. It is the place for anyone who wants some history and art alongside the landscapes.

In Monteverde, an evening out means a guided night walk looking for tarantulas and tree frogs, perhaps a drink in Santa Elena, and then bed before the dawn birding. There are no clubs and nothing stays open late.

San Jose has proper nights out, mostly at weekends. There are craft beer and cocktails in Barrio Escalante and Barrio California, cheap student bars in San Pedro, and salsa and small clubs in El Pueblo until late. Expect to take taxis from door to door, as downtown is not for wandering after dark.

Both are bases for nature, but Monteverde puts you right in it. The cloud forest starts at the edge of town. The Monteverde and Santa Elena reserves and the Children's Eternal Rainforest are crossed by trails and hanging bridges, with quetzals and hummingbirds around you and zip-lines over the canopy.

San Jose's nature covers more ground but is always a drive away. You can stand on the crater rims of Poas and Irazu, walk from cloud forest down to rainforest in Braulio Carrillo, raft the Pacuare and see macaws at Carara. The capital gives you more variety, while Monteverde gives you more depth in one remarkable habitat.

From Monteverde there is hardly anything to do as a day out. Puntarenas is a long round trip with little reward, and Arenal is better as the next stop on your route.

San Jose sits in the middle of a ring of easy outings: the basilica and ruined church in Cartago, the old colonial church in the Orosi valley, orchids at Lankester, the painted oxcarts of Sarchi and coffee farms on Barva and Poas. None of them is a big draw on its own, but together they fill several days without changing hotel.

Monteverde is the better stay for children who like animals. Butterfly gardens, frog and insect exhibits, hanging bridges and torchlit night walks are all close together in a small, easy-going town, and older children can do the zip-lines. Toddlers find it harder, because the trails are steep, muddy and no good for buggies.

San Jose has the Museo de los Ninos in a former prison and the lawns and lake of La Sabana. Most of its family outings, the craters, waterfall gardens and butterfly farms, are outside the city, and broken pavements and heavy traffic make the centre tiring with small children.

Neither is easy, and both lean on taxis and organised transport, but the problems are different. In Monteverde the problem is slopes and distance. Lodges and reserves are spread along steep, rough roads, and the main reserve is 6km uphill from Santa Elena, so tour pick-ups do most of the work, though once you arrive you will not need a car.

In San Jose the city itself is the obstacle. There is no metro, the private bus companies are confusing, and traffic slows every trip out of the valley. By day, the compact centre and the pedestrian stretch of Avenida Central help.

Monteverde's shopping comes down to souvenirs, outdoor gear and bags of coffee and chocolate. Embroidery from the women's artisan cooperative is the one thing worth seeking out.

San Jose has much more to browse: the stalls of the Mercado Central, wood carvings and Boruca masks at the craft market, and big malls in Escazu for clothes. It is practical rather than stylish, but it is the place to pick up gifts or anything you forgot to pack.

Monteverde costs more than the capital, because almost everything you go there for comes with a fee. Hostels and sodas keep the basics manageable, but reserve entry, the guide you need to find wildlife, canopy tours, night walks and the shuttle up the mountain soon add up. Lodges in the forest charge close to North American rates.

San Jose is the easier place to keep a budget in check. Hotels cost less than on the coast, and soda meals, buses and city taxis are inexpensive. Costs climb at the restaurants in Escalante and Escazu, and at the parks, which charge foreigners more.

Monteverde has no stage to plan around. At most you will find local musicians in a restaurant some evenings and the odd community concert.

San Jose has a real, if modest, programme. The National Symphony Orchestra and ballet perform at the Teatro Nacional, the Teatro Melico Salazar puts on folk and dance shows, and small theatres stage Spanish-language plays. Add salsa bands in the dance halls and you have an evening or two, though not a reason to travel.

Monteverde's great asset is quiet. The air is cool and misty, birdsong starts at dawn, nights are early and many lodges have balconies looking over the trees. Treatments are limited to a few lodges and some yoga classes, and the Arenal hot springs are a long drive away.

San Jose is a noisy capital clogged with traffic, with hotel spas as its only pampering. The simple thermal pools of the Orosi valley are a couple of hours out, but real calm means leaving the city for the hills above Escazu or the coffee farms on the volcano slopes.