VacationSelector
Vieux Nice and the Baie des Anges, Nice
NiceVieux Nice and the Baie des Anges
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Nice by Daniel Stockman, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Nice 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 Nice for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • 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. Nice 75, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Nice leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Nice 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Nice leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Nice 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Nice leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Nice 47, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Nice leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nice 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Nice leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Nice 87, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Nice leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Nice 57, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Nice leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Nice 74, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Nice leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Nice 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Nice leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Nice 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nice 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Nice leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nice 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Nice leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nice and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Nice
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Nice in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °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
NiceSan 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. Nice: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNiceSan 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
Elevation0 m1,161 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)6 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNiceSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population357,737335,007
People per km²4,9757,511
Museums within 10 km179
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Nice 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.