VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
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: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • 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. Interlaken 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Interlaken leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Interlaken leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Interlaken leads by 66 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Interlaken leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Interlaken leads by 65 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Interlaken leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 30 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Interlaken
Best match
41match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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.

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
InterlakenSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation571 m19 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population6,123-
People per km²1,424-
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Interlaken 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). 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. 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.

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.