VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Sorrento?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Sorrento 32: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Sorrento 28: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 2 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 43 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Sorrento 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Sorrento 58: Sorrento leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Sorrento 38: Sorrento leads by 2 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Sorrento 32: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Sorrento 20: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Sorrento 48: Sorrento leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Sorrento.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

Sorrento
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaSorrento

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.

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

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). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSorrento
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 m50 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSorrento
City population335,00715,407
People per km²7,5111,541
Museums within 10 km96
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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