VacationSelector
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet
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: Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cannes 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 Cannes for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Cannes 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Cannes 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Cannes leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Cannes 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Cannes leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Cannes 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Cannes leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cannes 72, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cannes 86, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Cannes leads by 74 points.
Good for families. Cannes 56, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Cannes leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Cannes 68, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Cannes leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Cannes 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Cannes leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Cannes 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cannes 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Cannes leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cannes 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: Cannes and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Cannes
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on wellness 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.

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
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
CannesSanta 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. Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCannesSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageFrenchSpanish
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
Elevation0 m19 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCannesSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population74,350-
People per km²3,793-
Museums within 10 km160
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cannes 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.