VacationSelector
Comares Tower and the Palace of Charles V, Alhambra, Granada
GranadaComares Tower and the Palace of Charles V, Alhambra
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: Granada by Jebulon, CC0; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Granada 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 Granada for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • 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. Granada 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Granada 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Granada leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Granada 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Granada leads by 76 points.
Nightlife. Granada 58, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Granada leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Granada 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Granada leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Granada 76, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Granada leads by 64 points.
Good for families. Granada 52, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Granada leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Granada 68, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Granada leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Granada 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Granada leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Granada 63, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Granada leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Granada 58, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Granada leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Granada 48, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Granada and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Granada
Best match
60match

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

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on beaches 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.

Granada in July

35 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
GranadaSanta 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. Granada: 1991-2020 normals, Granada / Caserío Hospicio (5 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGranadaSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageSpanishSpanish
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
Elevation693 m19 m
Main airportF.G.L. Airport Granada-Jaén Airport (GRX)16 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGranadaSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population233,975-
People per km²2,659-
Museums within 10 km200
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Granada 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.