VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Valparaiso?

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
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Valparaiso 60: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 11 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Valparaiso 33: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 11 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Valparaiso 30: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica and Valparaiso are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Valparaiso 18: San Jose, Costa Rica 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 Valparaiso.

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 families with your weighting.

Valparaiso
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights 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

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaValparaiso

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.

Valparaiso 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.

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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaValparaiso
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation1,161 m21 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaValparaiso
City population335,007296,655
People per km²7,5116,180
Museums within 10 km917
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Valparaiso 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. 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.