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The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Santo Domingo?

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 Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose, Costa Rica’s own page.

Choose Santo Domingo for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’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 Jose, Costa Rica 12, Santo Domingo 58: Santo Domingo leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Santo Domingo 58: Santo Domingo leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Santo Domingo 64: Santo Domingo leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Santo Domingo 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 42 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Santo Domingo 44: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Santo Domingo 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Santo Domingo 40: Santo Domingo leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Santo Domingo 44: Santo Domingo leads by 8 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Santo Domingo 46: Santo Domingo leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Santo Domingo 22: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Santo Domingo
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaSanto Domingo

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.

Santo Domingo has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre). Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSanto Domingo
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,161 m14 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSanto Domingo
City population335,0072,201,941
People per km²7,5111,691
Museums within 10 km910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose, Costa Rica or Santo Domingo 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). 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. 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.