VacationSelector
Palms on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu
HonoluluPalms on Waikiki 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: Honolulu by Jess Loiterton, Pexels License; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Honolulu 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 Honolulu for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • wellness
  • prices

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. Honolulu 91, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Honolulu leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Honolulu 70, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Honolulu leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Honolulu 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Honolulu leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Honolulu 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Honolulu leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Honolulu 88, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Honolulu leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Honolulu 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Honolulu leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Honolulu 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Honolulu leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Honolulu 52, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Honolulu leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Honolulu 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Honolulu leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Honolulu 15, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Honolulu 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Honolulu leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Honolulu 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Honolulu and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Honolulu
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Honolulu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
13 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
HonoluluSanta 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. Honolulu: 1991-2020 normals, Honolulu International Airport (10.1 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHonoluluSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-10UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation12 m19 m
Main airportDaniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHonoluluSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population350,964-
People per km²1,981-
Museums within 10 km120
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Honolulu 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.