VacationSelector
The arch at the entrance to the boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, MarylandThe arch at the entrance to the boardwalk
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: Ocean City, Maryland by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ocean City, Maryland 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 Ocean City, Maryland for

  • families
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocean City, Maryland’s own page.

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Ocean City, Maryland 78, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Ocean City, Maryland and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Ocean City, Maryland 14, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Ocean City, Maryland 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocean City, Maryland 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Ocean City, Maryland 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Ocean City, Maryland 78, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Ocean City, Maryland 34, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Ocean City, Maryland 24, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Ocean City, Maryland 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocean City, Maryland 18, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocean City, Maryland 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocean City, Maryland and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Ocean City, Maryland
Best match
40match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on wellness 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.

Ocean City, Maryland in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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
Ocean City, MarylandSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Ocean City, Maryland 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. Ocean City, Maryland: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Ocean City / Morris Mobile Home Park (10.2 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcean City, MarylandSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation2 m19 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)39 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcean City, MarylandSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population6,844-
People per km²73-
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Ocean City, Maryland 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.