VacationSelector
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Portofino 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 Portofino for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Portofino 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Portofino leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Portofino 36, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Portofino 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Portofino 14, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portofino 77, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Portofino 76, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Portofino leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Portofino 33, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Portofino 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Portofino leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Portofino 29, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Portofino 9, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Portofino 7, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Portofino 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Portofino leads by 14 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Portofino and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Portofino
38match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
Best match
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 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
PortofinoSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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. Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortofinoSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation20 m1,161 m
Main airportGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortofinoSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population355335,007
People per km²1427,511
Museums within 10 km149
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Portofino 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.