VacationSelector
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Montevideo 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 Montevideo for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Montevideo 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Montevideo leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Montevideo 57, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Montevideo leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Montevideo 54, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Montevideo leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Montevideo 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Montevideo leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montevideo 34, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Montevideo 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Montevideo leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Montevideo 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Montevideo leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Montevideo 54, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Montevideo leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Montevideo and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 36.
Affordability. Montevideo 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montevideo 57, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Montevideo leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montevideo 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Montevideo leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montevideo and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Montevideo
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 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
MontevideoSan 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. Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontevideoSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation41 m1,161 m
Main airportCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontevideoSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population1,302,954335,007
People per km²1,7857,511
Museums within 10 km369
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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