VacationSelector
The arch at the entrance to the boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, MarylandThe arch at the entrance to the boardwalk
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Ocean City, Maryland by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Ocean City, Maryland 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 Ocean City, Maryland for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocean City, Maryland’s own page.

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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. Ocean City, Maryland 78, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Ocean City, Maryland 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Ocean City, Maryland 14, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Ocean City, Maryland 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocean City, Maryland 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Ocean City, Maryland 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Ocean City, Maryland 78, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Ocean City, Maryland 34, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Ocean City, Maryland 24, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Ocean City, Maryland 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocean City, Maryland 18, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocean City, Maryland 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocean City, Maryland and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Ocean City, Maryland
40match

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.

Ocean City, Maryland in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
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 seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Ocean City, MarylandSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Ocean City, Maryland 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. Ocean City, Maryland: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Ocean City / Morris Mobile Home Park (10.2 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcean City, MarylandSan 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
Elevation2 m1,161 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)39 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcean City, MarylandSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population6,844335,007
People per km²737,511
Museums within 10 km09
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ocean City, Maryland 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.