VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • families

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Paphos 76, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Paphos leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Paphos leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Paphos leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Paphos leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Paphos leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Paphos leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Paphos leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Paphos
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
27 °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
PaphosSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation72 m1,161 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population35,961335,007
People per km²1,9877,511
Museums within 10 km49
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

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