VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
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: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cairns 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 Cairns for

  • day trips
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • wellness
  • beaches

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. Cairns 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Cairns and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Cairns leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Cairns leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Cairns leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Cairns leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Cairns leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Cairns leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Cairns leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Cairns leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Cairns leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Cairns
Best match
46match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cairns in July

24 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
30 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
11 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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Cairns's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Green Island Aws.

Cairns 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. Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-6
Emergency number000911
Elevation7 m19 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population146,778-
People per km²301-
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Cairns 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.