VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

New Orleans 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 New Orleans for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • wellness

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. New Orleans 14, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: New Orleans leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: New Orleans leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: New Orleans leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 36 points.
Day trips. New Orleans and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 52.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: New Orleans leads by 11 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: New Orleans leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: New Orleans leads by 18 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: New Orleans leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

New Orleans
Best match
54match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink 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.

New Orleans in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
169 mmrain in the month
30 °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
New OrleansSan 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. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation-2 m1,161 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population383,997335,007
People per km²4237,511
Museums within 10 km169
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months-

Where else could you go?

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