Route brief · MAD → SJO
Madrid → San José
$631
−23% vs typical
seasonal median $815 · difference $184
Jan 18 '27 – Jan 30 '27 · 12 nights
Lufthansa2 stops
- Usual monthly lows
- $750–$903
- Board rank
- Stronger than 63%
- Route sample
- 7 observed months
Cached fare — the booking search re-prices live before you pay.
Destination briefSJOSan JoséNobody comes for the capital — they come for two coasts, volcanoes and cloud forest, all within four hours.Best windowDec–AprAirportsJuan Santamaría (SJO)All routes into San JoséWhen this route gets cheap.
Cached-fare history: across 7 months, Jan is the cheapest for MAD → SJO. Best time to be there: Dec–Apr.
Fares bottom out in January around $631 and peak in September near $963 — a $332 spread across the 7 months we track. The cheapest itinerary we are tracking makes 2 stops and takes about 17 hours outbound, on a 12-night trip — ticketed under Lufthansa, which on a connecting fare need not operate every leg. At $631 for 8,483 km each way, that works out to about $37 per 1,000 km flown. That is below the $44 typical of long-haul fares here. Of the 17 departure cities we track at a similar distance from San José, this is the cheapest right now — 21% under the next one, Copenhagen. That puts it in the cheaper half of the 33 routes of similar length we watch out of Madrid, where the middle fare is $695.
Day-level prices for the next 4 months
Tap any day → live search
The median cached fare across this calendar is unchanged since tracking began on Aug 8 — $1,002 then versus $1,002 now, across 6 recorded snapshots. This is a calendar-level trend, so an individual deal above can be lower. The lowest single day we have seen here is $690, on Aug 30.
Cached day-level data for this route is sparse — 20 of 122 days priced, from 53 tracked fares. The days below are shown as found, with no cheapest-day or below-median call.
Cheapest in Jan · around $631
23% below the $815 typical fare
Cheapest round-trip fare found per month · Madrid → San José · cached-price history
Route facts
- Airports
- Barajas (MAD) ↔ Juan Santamaría (SJO)
- Flight time
- ~17 hours outbound
- Distance
- ~8,483 km each way
- Typical price
- $815 round-trip (seasonal median)
- Airlines on the board
- Lufthansa
- Itineraries
- Connections on current fares
- Best months to visit
- Dec–Apr
MAD → SJO, answered.
Is $631 a good price for Madrid to San José?
Yes — the seasonal median for this route is around $815 round-trip. At $631 you're 23% below that, saving about $184, which we rate good for this route.
What is the cheapest month to fly from Madrid to San José?
Across 7 months of cached-fare history, Jan comes out cheapest on this route. The best months to actually be in San José are Dec–Apr — when those overlap, that's your window.
How far in advance should I book MAD → San José?
We do not publish a number for this, because we cannot measure it yet. Answering it honestly means watching the same departure date on this route over many weeks as it approaches, and that archive is still filling up — so any "book N days ahead" figure here would be borrowed from somewhere else rather than measured. What we can measure is which month is cheap: across 7 months of cached fares, Jan comes out lowest on this route. See /guides/what-moves-a-flight-price/ for what does move a fare.
Are there nonstop flights from Madrid to San José?
The current cheapest fares involve a connection, ticketed under Lufthansa. Nonstop options exist on many dates at higher prices — check the live search for your exact dates.
Are these prices guaranteed?
No — these are cached fares found on real searches (this one on September 1). Airlines reprice constantly, so the booking search re-checks the live price before you pay. Fresher finds are far more likely to still be available.
Next step
Sleeping in San José?
Lock the flight first — then compare stays for Jan 18 '27 – Jan 30 '27 · 12 nights.
Browse hotels ↗
Missed it?
Cached fares expire. This route has a feed of its own — follow it and the next MAD → SJO drop reaches you as soon as we find it.
Follow MAD → SJO