VacationSelector
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab
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: Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Dubai 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 Dubai for

  • shopping
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • 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. Dubai 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Dubai 76, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Dubai leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Dubai 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Dubai leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Dubai 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Dubai leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dubai 25, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 53 points.
Day trips. Dubai 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Dubai leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Dubai 82, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Dubai leads by 47 points.
Getting around. Dubai 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Dubai leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Dubai 82, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Dubai leads by 70 points.
Affordability. Dubai 32, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Dubai leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dubai 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Dubai leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dubai 46, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dubai and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Dubai
Best match
54match

Wins on shopping and families with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Dubai in July

42 °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
DubaiSanta 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. Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDubaiSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m19 m
Main airportDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDubaiSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population3,944,751-
Museums within 10 km140
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 Dubai 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.