VacationSelector
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque
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: Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Istanbul 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 Istanbul for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Istanbul 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Istanbul 87, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
Culture & sights. Istanbul 90, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Istanbul leads by 86 points.
Nightlife. Istanbul 77, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul 52, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Istanbul 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Istanbul leads by 43 points.
Good for families. Istanbul 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Istanbul leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Istanbul 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Istanbul 86, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Istanbul leads by 74 points.
Affordability. Istanbul 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Istanbul leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Istanbul leads by 54 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul 75, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Istanbul leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Istanbul and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on beaches 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.

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
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
IstanbulSanta 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. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageTurkishSpanish
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation100 m19 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population15,655,924-
People per km²2,930-
Museums within 10 km730
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Istanbul 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). 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. 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.