VacationSelector
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple
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: Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Osaka 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 Osaka for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Osaka 34, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Osaka 91, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Osaka leads by 51 points.
Culture & sights. Osaka 63, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Osaka leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Osaka 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Osaka leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Osaka 58, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Osaka 97, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Osaka leads by 85 points.
Good for families. Osaka 88, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Osaka leads by 53 points.
Getting around. Osaka 90, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Osaka leads by 75 points.
Shopping & style. Osaka 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Osaka leads by 68 points.
Affordability. Osaka 60, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Osaka leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Osaka 66, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Osaka leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Osaka 66, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Osaka and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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.

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 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
OsakaSanta 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. Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsakaSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation20 m19 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsakaSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population2,751,862-
People per km²12,340-
Museums within 10 km440
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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