VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Montpellier 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 Montpellier for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Montpellier’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. Montpellier 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Montpellier leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Montpellier leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Montpellier leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Montpellier leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Montpellier leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Montpellier leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Montpellier leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Montpellier leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Montpellier leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Montpellier leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Montpellier
Best match
62match

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.

Montpellier in July

30 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
17 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 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
MontpellierSan 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. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m1,161 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population310,240335,007
People per km²5,4527,511
Museums within 10 km149
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montpellier 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.