VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Oaxaca 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 Oaxaca for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

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. Oaxaca 5, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Oaxaca leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Oaxaca leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 40.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Oaxaca leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Oaxaca leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Oaxaca leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Oaxaca leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Oaxaca leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaSan 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. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,555 m1,161 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population258,913335,007
People per km²3,0287,511
Museums within 10 km109
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oaxaca 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.