VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Virginia Beach?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica and Virginia Beach are level on 42.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Virginia Beach 30: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Virginia Beach 37: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Virginia Beach 56: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 22 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 12 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 31 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Virginia Beach 27: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Virginia Beach 32: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Virginia Beach 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica and Virginia Beach are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Virginia Beach.

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.

Virginia Beach
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaVirginia Beach

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). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,161 m7 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaVirginia Beach
City population335,007459,470
People per km²7,511-
Museums within 10 km92
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Virginia Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.