VacationSelector
Fort Lovrijenac above the sea, Dubrovnik
DubrovnikFort Lovrijenac above the sea
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: Dubrovnik by Natalia Semenova, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Dubrovnik 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 Dubrovnik for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • 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. Dubrovnik 74, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Dubrovnik 47, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Dubrovnik leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Dubrovnik 72, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Dubrovnik leads by 68 points.
Nightlife. Dubrovnik 37, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Dubrovnik leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dubrovnik 70, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Dubrovnik 66, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Dubrovnik leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Dubrovnik 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Dubrovnik leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Dubrovnik 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Dubrovnik leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Dubrovnik 25, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Dubrovnik leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Dubrovnik 28, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Dubrovnik leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dubrovnik 25, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Dubrovnik leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dubrovnik 32, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dubrovnik and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Dubrovnik
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on wellness 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.

Dubrovnik in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
DubrovnikSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Dubrovnik 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.

Dubrovnik's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Mostar.

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. Dubrovnik: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dubrovnik / Cilipi (15.3 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDubrovnikSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageCroatianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m19 m
Main airportDubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre76 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDubrovnikSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population41,562-
Museums within 10 km70
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubrovnik 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.