VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Sarasota?

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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Sarasota 44: Sarasota leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Sarasota 28: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Sarasota 55: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 23 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Sarasota 50: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 24 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Sarasota 28: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Sarasota 40: Sarasota leads by 4 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Sarasota 30: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Sarasota.

Your match

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

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

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

Sarasota
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and families 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 recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaSarasota

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.

Sarasota 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.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

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). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSarasota
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,161 m7 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSarasota
City population335,00754,842
People per km²7,511840
Museums within 10 km93
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose, Costa Rica or Sarasota 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.