VacationSelector
The domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Abu DhabiThe domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Fishermen on the rocks at Playa Santa Teresa at sunset, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaFishermen on the rocks at Playa Santa Teresa at sunset

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Abu Dhabi or Santa Teresa, Costa Rica?

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 Abu Dhabi for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Abu Dhabi’s own page.

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Teresa, Costa Rica’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. Abu Dhabi 78, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Abu Dhabi leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Abu Dhabi leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Abu Dhabi leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Abu Dhabi leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Abu Dhabi leads by 47 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Abu Dhabi leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Abu Dhabi leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Abu Dhabi leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi 32, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Abu Dhabi leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Abu Dhabi and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Abu Dhabi
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights and families with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Abu Dhabi in July

43 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
218 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Abu Dhabi's temperatures are measured 26 km from the centre, at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Abu Dhabi 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.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Puntarenas.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 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. Abu Dhabi: 1991-2020 normals, Abu Dhabi International Airport (25.7 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m19 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population1,570,000-
People per km²1,615-
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Abu Dhabi or Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.