VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
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: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira 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 Essaouira for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Essaouira 47, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Essaouira leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Essaouira leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Essaouira leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Essaouira leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Essaouira leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Essaouira leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Essaouira leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Essaouira in July

22 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Essaouira 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. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCE50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m19 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population82,962-
People per km²16,592-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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