VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
Plaza de España, Seville
SevillePlaza de España

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Seville by Tibor Kovacs, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Seville?

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

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

Choose Seville for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Seville’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, Seville 18: Seville leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Seville 73: Seville leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Seville 82: Seville leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Seville 62: Seville leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Seville 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 26 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Seville 80: Seville leads by 28 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Seville 55: Seville leads by 11 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Seville 72: Seville leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Seville 55: Seville leads by 19 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Seville 58: Seville leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Seville 68: Seville leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Seville 40: Seville leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Seville.

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 with your weighting.

Seville
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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
13 hdaylight a day

Seville in July

36 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaSeville

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 Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre). Seville: 1991-2020 normals, Sevilla / San Pablo (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSeville
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation1,161 m18 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsSeville Airport (SVQ)9 km from centre96 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSeville
City population335,007689,423
People per km²7,5114,896
Museums within 10 km924
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose, Costa Rica or Seville 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.