VacationSelector
The Centro Civico and its clock tower, Bariloche
BarilocheThe Centro Civico and its clock tower
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: Bariloche by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bariloche 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 Bariloche for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • 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. Bariloche 27, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Bariloche 44, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Bariloche leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Bariloche 27, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Bariloche leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Bariloche 33, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Bariloche leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bariloche 94, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Bariloche leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Bariloche 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Bariloche leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Bariloche 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Bariloche leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bariloche 44, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Bariloche leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Bariloche 33, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Bariloche leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Bariloche 46, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Bariloche leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bariloche 27, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Bariloche leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bariloche 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bariloche and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Bariloche
Best match
42match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on beaches 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.

Bariloche in July

8 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
BarilocheSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

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. Bariloche: 1991-2020 normals, Bariloche Aerodrome (11.2 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarilocheSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-6
Emergency number117 or 911911
Elevation794 m19 m
Main airportTeniente Luis Candelaria International Airport (BRC)12 km from centre17 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarilocheSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population136,381-
People per km²619-
Museums within 10 km30
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 Bariloche 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). 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. 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.