VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
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: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Gold Coast 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 Gold Coast for

  • families
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • 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. Gold Coast 92, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Gold Coast leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Gold Coast leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Gold Coast leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Gold Coast leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Gold Coast leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Gold Coast leads by 54 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Gold Coast leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Gold Coast leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Gold Coast leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Gold Coast leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
11 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
Gold CoastSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

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. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-6
Emergency number000911
Elevation12 m19 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population607,665-
People per km²433-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Gold Coast 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.