VacationSelector
Skiers among snow-covered firs, Beaver Creek
Beaver CreekSkiers among snow-covered firs
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: Beaver Creek by Joe Lin, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Beaver Creek 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 Beaver Creek for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Beaver Creek 6, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Beaver Creek 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Beaver Creek 7, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Beaver Creek leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Beaver Creek 12, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beaver Creek 90, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Beaver Creek leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Beaver Creek 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Beaver Creek leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Beaver Creek 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Beaver Creek leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Beaver Creek 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Beaver Creek leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Beaver Creek 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Beaver Creek leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Beaver Creek 5, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beaver Creek 36, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Beaver Creek leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beaver Creek 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beaver Creek and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Beaver Creek
35match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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.

Beaver Creek in July

29 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Beaver CreekSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Beaver Creek's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Eagle County / Gypsum.

Beaver Creek's station stands 268 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Beaver Creek 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. Beaver Creek: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Eagle County / Gypsum (33.8 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeaver CreekSanta 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
Elevation2,264 m19 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)34 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeaver CreekSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Museums within 10 km00
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 Beaver Creek or Santa Teresa, Costa Rica somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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.