VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Phuket 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 Phuket for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • day trips

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. Phuket 90, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Phuket leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Phuket leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Phuket leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Phuket leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Phuket leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Phuket leads by 54 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 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
PhuketSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

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. Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m1,161 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population77,610335,007
People per km²6,4687,511
Museums within 10 km29
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 Phuket or San Jose, Costa Rica somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.