VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
The harbour front with the church tower above the houses, Saint-Tropez
Saint-TropezThe harbour front with the church tower above the houses

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Saint-Tropez by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Saint-Tropez?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Saint-Tropez for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Saint-Tropez’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, Saint-Tropez 82: Saint-Tropez leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Saint-Tropez 48: Saint-Tropez leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Saint-Tropez 35: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Saint-Tropez 60: Saint-Tropez leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Saint-Tropez 72: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Saint-Tropez 57: Saint-Tropez leads by 5 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Saint-Tropez 42: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Saint-Tropez 32: Saint-Tropez leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Saint-Tropez 64: Saint-Tropez leads by 28 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Saint-Tropez 8: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Saint-Tropez 18: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Saint-Tropez 35: Saint-Tropez leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Saint-Tropez.

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.

Saint-Tropez
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and shopping 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

Saint-Tropez in July

32 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
10 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaSaint-Tropez

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.

Saint-Tropez 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.

Saint-Tropez's sunshine is measured 62 km from the centre, at Nice.

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). Saint-Tropez: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Le Luc (24.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSaint-Tropez
Official languageSpanishFrench
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation1,161 m0 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)64 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaSaint-Tropez
City population335,0073,582
People per km²7,511320
Museums within 10 km94
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose, Costa Rica or Saint-Tropez 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.