VacationSelector
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Rome 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 Rome for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Rome 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Rome leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Rome 82, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Rome leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Rome 99, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Rome leads by 61 points.
Nightlife. Rome 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Rome leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rome 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Rome 92, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Rome leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Rome 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Rome leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Rome 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Rome leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Rome 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Rome leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Rome 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rome 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Rome leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rome 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Rome leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rome and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Rome
Best match
64match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Rome in July

31 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
21 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
RomeSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Rome's sunshine is measured 31 km from the centre, at Vigna Di Valle.

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. Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRomeSan 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
Elevation21 m1,161 m
Main airportRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureRomeSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population2,748,109335,007
People per km²2,1357,511
Museums within 10 km1789
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km70
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 Rome 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.