VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Tromso?

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
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’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, Tromso 8: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Tromso 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Tromso 27: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Tromso 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 14 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Tromso 14: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 38 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Tromso 45: Tromso leads by 1 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Tromso 15: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 21 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Tromso 11: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Tromso 32: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Tromso.

Your match

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

San Jose, Costa Rica
Best match
41match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaTromso

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). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaTromso
Official languageSpanishNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation1,161 m20 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaTromso
City population335,00779,943
People per km²7,51132
Museums within 10 km98
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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