VacationSelector
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Puerto Escondido 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 Puerto Escondido for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Puerto Escondido 82, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Puerto Escondido leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Escondido 48, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Puerto Escondido leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Escondido 8, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Escondido 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Puerto Escondido leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Escondido and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 78.
Day trips. Puerto Escondido 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Puerto Escondido 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Puerto Escondido 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Puerto Escondido leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Escondido 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Puerto Escondido 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Puerto Escondido leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Escondido 12, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Escondido 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Puerto Escondido leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Escondido and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Puerto Escondido
Best match
45match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Puerto Escondido in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
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 recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto EscondidoSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Puerto Escondido's temperatures are measured 66 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Puerto Escondido 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. Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto EscondidoSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation60 m1,161 m
Main airportPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto EscondidoSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population29,903335,007
People per km²-7,511
Museums within 10 km09
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 Puerto Escondido 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.