VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
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: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Colombo 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Colombo leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Colombo leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Colombo leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Colombo leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Colombo and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica are level on 35.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Colombo leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Colombo leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Colombo leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Colombo leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Colombo
Best match
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °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
ColomboSanta 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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageTamil, SinhalaSpanish
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m19 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population647,557-
People per km²17,361-
Museums within 10 km100
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 Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.