VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Montreal 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 Montreal for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Montreal’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. Montreal 25, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Montreal leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Montreal leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Montreal leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Montreal leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Montreal leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Montreal leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Montreal 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Montreal leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Montreal leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Montreal leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Montreal leads by 29 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montreal and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Montreal
Best match
61match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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.

Montreal in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
98 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
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
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealSan 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. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation31 m1,161 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population1,895,211335,007
People per km²3,8067,511
Museums within 10 km379
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montreal 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.