VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Tulum?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tulum for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tulum’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, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Tulum 52: Tulum leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Tulum 30: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Tulum 76: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Tulum 68: Tulum leads by 16 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 16 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Tulum 25: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Tulum 35: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 1 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Tulum 30: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Tulum 15: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 57 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Tulum.

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.

Tulum
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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 seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Tulum in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaTulum

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.

Tulum has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaTulum
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,161 m5 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaTulum
City population335,00733,374
People per km²7,511-
Museums within 10 km90
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose, Costa Rica or Tulum 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.