VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
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: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Aspen 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 Aspen for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Aspen 6, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Aspen leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Aspen leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Aspen leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Aspen leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Aspen leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Aspen leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Aspen leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Aspen leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Aspen leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Aspen
Best match
43match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
AspenSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Aspen 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. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,405 m19 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population7,004-
People per km²700-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aspen 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.