VacationSelector
Rozenhoedkaai and the Belfry, Bruges
BrugesRozenhoedkaai and the Belfry
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: Bruges by Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bruges 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 Bruges for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Bruges 28, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Bruges 56, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Bruges leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Bruges 75, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Bruges leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Bruges 27, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bruges 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Bruges 85, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Bruges leads by 73 points.
Good for families. Bruges 54, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Bruges leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Bruges 78, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Bruges leads by 63 points.
Shopping & style. Bruges 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Bruges leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Bruges 36, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Bruges leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bruges 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Bruges leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bruges 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: Bruges and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Bruges
Best match
50match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bruges in July

21 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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
BrugesSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Bruges 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.

Bruges's sunshine is measured 37 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

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. Bruges: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zeebrugge / Zeemanshaard (15.8 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrugesSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageFrench, German, DutchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation2 m19 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)94 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrugesSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population118,509-
People per km²840-
Museums within 10 km380
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bruges 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.