VacationSelector
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji
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: Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Fukuoka 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 Fukuoka for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Fukuoka 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Fukuoka 82, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Fukuoka leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Fukuoka 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Fukuoka leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Fukuoka 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Fukuoka leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fukuoka 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Fukuoka 84, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Fukuoka leads by 72 points.
Good for families. Fukuoka 78, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Fukuoka leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Fukuoka 82, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Fukuoka leads by 67 points.
Shopping & style. Fukuoka 65, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Fukuoka leads by 53 points.
Affordability. Fukuoka 58, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Fukuoka leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fukuoka 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Fukuoka leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fukuoka 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fukuoka and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Fukuoka
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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.

Fukuoka in July

31 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
301 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °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
FukuokaSanta 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. Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFukuokaSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation8 m19 m
Main airportFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureFukuokaSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population1,603,043-
People per km²4,715-
Museums within 10 km230
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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

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.