VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
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: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Cebu 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Cebu leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Cebu leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Cebu leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Cebu leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Cebu leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Cebu leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Cebu leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Cebu leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Cebu leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Cebu
Best match
48match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on beaches 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.

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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
CebuSanta 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. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCebuSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation135 m19 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population965,332-
People per km²3,065-
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 Cebu 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.