VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Tokyo?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: Tokyo leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 56 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Tokyo 68: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 33 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 51 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 68 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 63 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Tokyo 48: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Tokyo.

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 and prices with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on getting around 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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaTokyo

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). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaTokyo
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation1,161 m6 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaTokyo
City population335,00714,264,798
People per km²7,5116,501
Museums within 10 km9192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

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