VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Wellington?

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

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica and Wellington are level on 78.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Wellington 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Wellington 33: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Wellington 30: Wellington leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Wellington.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and beaches 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation1,161 m0 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaWellington
City population335,007216,200
People per km²7,511487
Museums within 10 km912
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 Wellington 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.