Worth mentioning San Jose is reputed as the one dodgy place of 0 interest you should avoid. I was told exactly this by an expat who has been there 20 years and have heard similar elsewhere.

I've heard this from expats and guidebooks written by foreigners, and even some Costa Ricans too

If a normal tourist only sees the blocks around the Ticabus bus station at 11pm and the blocks around the bus stop to their tourist destination then of course it's an ugly city.

However the Escazú, Sabana and San Pedro neighbourhoods are quite nice.

The downtown is functional (while not beautiful), compared to any other of the Central American capitals.

And the downtown main street has wide sidewalks for walking (unlike San Salvador), grid style streets (unlike Tegucigalpa), nice weather (unlike Panama), government offices, hotels, nearby (unlike all the others), and accessible by public transport.