VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Siena?

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

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Siena’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, Siena 14: Siena leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Siena 62: Siena leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Siena 78: Siena leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Siena 27: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Siena 65: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 13 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Siena 94: Siena leads by 42 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Siena 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Siena 60: Siena leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Siena 35: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 1 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Siena 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Siena 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Siena 55: Siena leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Siena.

Your match

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

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

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

Siena
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips 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
13 hdaylight a day

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaSiena

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.

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena 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). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSiena
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation1,161 m322 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSiena
City population335,00752,812
People per km²7,511446
Museums within 10 km930
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05

Where else could you go?

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