VacationSelector
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo
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: Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Monaco 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 Monaco for

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

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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. Monaco 68, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Monaco 57, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Monaco leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Monaco 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Monaco leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Monaco 48, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Monaco leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Monaco 70, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Monaco 84, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Monaco leads by 72 points.
Good for families. Monaco 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Monaco leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Monaco 78, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Monaco leads by 63 points.
Shopping & style. Monaco 52, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Monaco leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Monaco 3, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Monaco 63, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Monaco leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Monaco 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Monaco and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Monaco
Best match
58match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °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
MonacoSanta 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. Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMonacoSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCEF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation68 m19 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMonacoSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population38,857-
People per km²18,503-
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Monaco or Santa Teresa, Costa Rica somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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). Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.