VacationSelector
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Palm 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 Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Palm Beach 82, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Palm Beach leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Palm Beach 47, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Palm Beach leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Palm Beach 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Palm Beach leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Palm Beach 32, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palm Beach 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Palm Beach 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Palm Beach leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Palm Beach 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Palm Beach leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Palm Beach 32, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Palm Beach leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Palm Beach 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Palm Beach leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Palm Beach 12, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palm Beach 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Palm Beach leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palm Beach 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Palm Beach leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palm Beach and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Palm Beach
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °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
Palm BeachSan 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. Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalm 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
Elevation2 m1,161 m
Main airportPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalm BeachSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population9,245335,007
People per km²3227,511
Museums within 10 km49
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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