VacationSelector
Skiers and chairlifts on the slopes in sunshine, Deer Valley
Deer ValleySkiers and chairlifts on the slopes in sunshine
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: Deer Valley by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Deer Valley 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 Deer Valley for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Deer Valley 10, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Deer Valley 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Deer Valley 15, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Deer Valley leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Deer Valley 25, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Deer Valley 90, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Deer Valley leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Deer Valley 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Deer Valley leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Deer Valley 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Deer Valley leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Deer Valley 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Deer Valley leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Deer Valley 25, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Deer Valley leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Deer Valley 4, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Deer Valley 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Deer Valley leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Deer Valley 52, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Deer Valley and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Deer Valley
36match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Deer Valley in July

28 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Deer ValleySanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Deer Valley's temperatures are measured 82 km from the centre, at Evanston.

Deer Valley's station stands 297 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Deer Valley 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. Deer Valley: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Evanston (81.9 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDeer ValleySanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,474 m19 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)45 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDeer ValleySanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Deer Valley or Santa Teresa, Costa Rica somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.