VacationSelector
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

San Diego 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 San Diego for

  • beaches
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. San Diego 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: San Diego leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. San Diego 62, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Diego leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. San Diego 50, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Diego leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. San Diego 48, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Diego leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Diego 77, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 1 points.
Day trips. San Diego 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Diego leads by 8 points.
Good for families. San Diego 96, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Diego leads by 52 points.
Getting around. San Diego 38, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: San Diego leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. San Diego 44, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Diego leads by 8 points.
Affordability. San Diego 26, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Diego 56, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Diego leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Diego 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: San Diego leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Diego and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

San Diego
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 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
San DiegoSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

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. San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan DiegoSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation129 m1,161 m
Main airportSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan DiegoSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population1,386,932335,007
People per km²1,4387,511
Museums within 10 km269
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Diego 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.