VacationSelector
The old town hall, Boca Raton
Boca RatonThe old town hall
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: Boca Raton by Spudgun67, CC0; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Boca Raton 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 Boca Raton for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • prices

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. Boca Raton 82, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Boca Raton 44, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Boca Raton leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Boca Raton 28, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Boca Raton leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Boca Raton 32, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Boca Raton leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boca Raton 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Boca Raton 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Boca Raton leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Boca Raton 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Boca Raton leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Boca Raton 18, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Boca Raton leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Boca Raton 54, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Boca Raton leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Boca Raton 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boca Raton 33, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Boca Raton leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boca Raton 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boca Raton and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Boca Raton
Best match
44match

Wins on day trips and shopping 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.

Boca Raton in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
191 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Boca RatonSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Boca Raton 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. Boca Raton: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Pompano Beach / Kendall Green (13.6 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBoca RatonSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m19 m
Main airportFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)33 km from centre138 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBoca RatonSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population97,422-
People per km²1,203-
Museums within 10 km50
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boca Raton 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). 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. 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.