VacationSelector
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

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

Positano 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 Positano for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Positano’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. Positano 77, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Positano leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Positano 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Positano 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Positano 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Positano 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: Positano leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Positano 88, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Positano leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Positano 28, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Positano 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Positano leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Positano 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Positano leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Positano 10, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Positano 15, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Positano 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Positano leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Positano 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

Positano
42match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
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.

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PositanoSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

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. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePositanoSan 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
Elevation142 m1,161 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePositanoSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population3,729335,007
People per km²4297,511
Museums within 10 km109
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

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