VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
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: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Paphos 76, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Paphos leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Paphos leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Paphos leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Paphos leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Paphos leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Paphos leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Paphos leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Paphos leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Paphos leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Paphos
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on wellness 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.

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °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
PaphosSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation72 m19 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population35,961-
People per km²1,987-
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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). 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. 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.