VacationSelector
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico
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: Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Gulf Shores 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 Gulf Shores for

  • day trips
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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. Gulf Shores and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica are level on 84.
Food & drink. Gulf Shores 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Gulf Shores 12, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Gulf Shores leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Gulf Shores 32, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Gulf Shores leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gulf Shores 52, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Gulf Shores 52, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Gulf Shores leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Gulf Shores 75, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Gulf Shores leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Gulf Shores and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica are level on 15.
Shopping & style. Gulf Shores 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Gulf Shores leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Gulf Shores 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Gulf Shores leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gulf Shores 27, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Gulf Shores leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gulf Shores 28, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gulf Shores and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Gulf Shores
Best match
40match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on wellness 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.

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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
Gulf ShoresSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Gulf Shores 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. Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGulf ShoresSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation2 m19 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGulf ShoresSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population15,014-
People per km²207-
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gulf Shores 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.