VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
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: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lucerne 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 Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Lucerne’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. Lucerne 35, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Lucerne leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Lucerne leads by 66 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Lucerne leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Lucerne leads by 71 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Lucerne leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Lucerne leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around 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.

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
LucerneSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Lucerne 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.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

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. Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSanta 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
Elevation436 m19 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population86,234-
People per km²2,963-
Museums within 10 km140
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 Lucerne 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.