VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Quito or San Jose?

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 Quito for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose San Jose for

  • families
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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. Quito 5, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, San Jose 36: Quito leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, San Jose 33: Quito leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, San Jose 72: Quito leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, San Jose 30: Quito leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, San Jose 20: Quito leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito and San Jose are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, San Jose 30: Quito leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and San Jose.

Your match

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

Quito
Best match
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoSan Jose

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoSan Jose
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua-
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,850 m25 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoSan Jose
City population1,763,2751,013,240
People per km²4,7352,167
Museums within 10 km1619
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quito or San Jose 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.