VacationSelector
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum
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: Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Palm Beach 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 Palm Beach for

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Palm Beach 82, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Palm Beach 47, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Palm Beach leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Palm Beach 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Palm Beach leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Palm Beach 32, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Palm Beach leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palm Beach 58, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Palm Beach 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Palm Beach leads by 43 points.
Good for families. Palm Beach 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Palm Beach leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Palm Beach 32, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Palm Beach leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Palm Beach 66, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Palm Beach leads by 54 points.
Affordability. Palm Beach 12, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palm Beach 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Palm Beach leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palm Beach 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palm Beach and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Palm Beach
Best match
49match

Wins on shopping and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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
Palm BeachSanta 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. Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalm BeachSanta 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 airportPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalm BeachSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population9,245-
People per km²322-
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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