VacationSelector
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Myrtle Beach 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 Myrtle Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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. Myrtle Beach 84, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Myrtle Beach leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Myrtle Beach 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Myrtle Beach 20, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Myrtle Beach 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Myrtle Beach leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Myrtle Beach 46, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Myrtle Beach 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Myrtle Beach 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Myrtle Beach leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Myrtle Beach 18, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Myrtle Beach 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Myrtle Beach leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Myrtle Beach 52, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Myrtle Beach 30, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Myrtle Beach and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 28.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Myrtle Beach and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Myrtle Beach
Best match
44match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Myrtle BeachSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMyrtle BeachSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m1,161 m
Main airportMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMyrtle BeachSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population35,682335,007
People per km²5917,511
Museums within 10 km29
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Myrtle Beach 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.