VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

San Francisco 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 Francisco for

  • food and drink
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • 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. San Francisco 25, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: San Francisco leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Francisco leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: San Francisco leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: San Francisco leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 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 FranciscoSan 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 Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoSan 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
Elevation16 m1,161 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population873,965335,007
People per km²1,4557,511
Museums within 10 km519
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Francisco 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.