San Jose, Costa Rica or Santa Teresa, Costa Rica?

This is no contest. San Jose is about two hours inland from Jaco and Puntarenas, so in the city swimming means a hotel pool, and a beach day means a long drive each way.

Santa Teresa is built around its sand: a long pale strand that runs into Playa Carmen and the rockier Mal País shore, with forest coming almost down to the water. The catch is the surf. Rip currents make open swimming risky on many days, so careful swimmers use the Mal País rock pools at low tide.

Both feed you pleasantly rather than memorably, but in different ways. San Jose has the stronger Costa Rican base: sodas on every block, the lunch counters of the Mercado Central, coffee grown in the valley, and a strip of modern restaurants in Barrio Escalante.

Santa Teresa's food is international, with wood-fired pizza, poke, Israeli plates and Argentine grills served under thatched roofs along the main road, plus fresh fish at the local sodas. There is no market and no street food, and after a few days the cafés start to look alike.

San Jose has only a day or two of sights, but they are real ones: the gilded Teatro Nacional, built with coffee money, the gold and jade museums, and the National Museum in the Bellavista fortress, its walls still marked by bullets. Santa Teresa has no sights of this kind at all, so if you are combining the two, see the museums while you are in the capital.

San Jose gives you more choice. There are craft beer and cocktail bars in Escalante and Barrio California, cheap student bars in San Pedro, and the salsa bars and small clubs of El Pueblo, where locals take their dancing seriously. Expect to take taxis, because downtown empties after dark.

In Santa Teresa, evenings start with sunset drinks on the sand, followed by a small party circuit of DJ nights and jungle parties that moves between a few venues. On the right night it goes on late. On other nights there is little happening, and many people go to bed early to surf at dawn.

Both make strong bases for the outdoors, but the landscapes are opposites. San Jose is the mountain option: crater rims at Poas and Irazu, cloud forest in Braulio Carrillo, waterfalls in the Orosi valley and white-water rafting on the Pacuare towards Turrialba.

Santa Teresa is about the sea and the dry forest. Its surf runs from easy beach waves at Playa Carmen to reef and point breaks. Howler monkeys live in the trees, a trail runs through the Cabo Blanco reserve, and boats go out to Isla Tortuga for snorkelling. It has no mountains, and San Jose has no surf.

San Jose is surrounded by coffee towns that can fill several days. There is colonial Cartago and its basilica, the old church in the Orosi valley, the orchids at Lankester, the painted oxcarts of Sarchi and coffee farm tours on Barva and Poas. None is unmissable, but there is plenty of choice.

From Santa Teresa, Montezuma, about forty minutes away, is the only real town outing, and anything further needs a ferry and a long journey. Excursions here go to reserves and islands rather than to other places.

Neither is easy with small children, but San Jose has more for them to do. In the city there is the Museo de los Ninos in a former penitentiary and the lawns and lake of La Sabana. Volcano craters, butterfly farms and waterfall gardens with sloths are within a drive. Families usually stay in the western suburbs, away from downtown traffic.

Santa Teresa has monkeys, rock pools and gentle surf lessons. The open sea is often unsafe for young swimmers, though, and the main road has no pavements. Medical care is basic and some distance away. It suits outdoorsy families with older children best.

Neither is simple, but San Jose is the easier of the two. Its compact centre has a pedestrian stretch of Avenida Central, and taxis and ride-hailing are easy to find. The buses defeat most visitors, though, and traffic slows every trip out of the city.

Santa Teresa has one rough road, no pavements and no public transport, so you rent a quad or scooter or call a taxi. Even getting there takes effort: a car ferry to Paquera, a long drive around the peninsula or a small plane to Tambor.

San Jose has the better browsing. The Mercado Central sells coffee, spices and leather, the craft market has Boruca masks and miniature oxcarts, and the malls in Escazu cover clothes. Santa Teresa has a row of boutiques selling swimwear, linen and surfboards, fine for replacing a bikini but with little to take home as a gift.

San Jose is clearly the cheaper of the two. Soda lunches, buses and taxis cost little, and hotels are well below coast prices, although mid-range dining in Escalante or Escazu is no bargain.

Santa Teresa's boutique hotels and international restaurants charge close to North American prices, and the journey in, quad hire and surf lessons add up quickly. With hostels, shared surf houses and the sodas you can do it on a budget, but it is never cheap.

San Jose has formal performance, which Santa Teresa lacks entirely. The National Symphony Orchestra and ballet play the Teatro Nacional, the Melico Salazar stages folk and dance shows, and salsa bands play the dance halls. In Santa Teresa, live music means an acoustic set at a beach bar or fire dancing at sunset.

This is where Santa Teresa wins. Yoga shalas in the forest, week-long retreats, drop-in breathwork and massage, and hotels built around hammocks and plunge pools give the village a slow rhythm, best enjoyed slightly back from the dusty main road.

San Jose is a noisy working capital with little beyond hotel spas, and its gentlest feature is its mild climate. To rest, people leave the city for lodges in the coffee hills or the simple thermal pools of the Orosi valley.