VacationSelector
A dhow below the towers of West Bay, Doha
DohaA dhow below the towers of West Bay
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: Doha by Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Doha 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 Doha for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Doha’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. Doha 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Doha 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Doha leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Doha 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Doha leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Doha 20, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Doha 7, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 71 points.
Day trips. Doha 5, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Doha 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Doha leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Doha 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Doha leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Doha 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Doha leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Doha 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Doha leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Doha 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Doha leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Doha 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 32 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Doha
Best match
38match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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.

Doha in July

43 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
DohaSanta 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. Doha: 1991-2020 normals, Doha International Airport (5.5 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDohaSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyQatari Rial (QAR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6
Emergency number999911
Elevation0 m19 m
Main airportHamad International Airport (DOH)8 km from centre194 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDohaSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population1,186,023-
People per km²8,985-
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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