VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
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: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Phuket 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 Phuket for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica does not lead in any category we score.

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. Phuket 90, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Phuket leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Phuket leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Phuket leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Phuket leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Phuket leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Phuket leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Phuket leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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
PhuketSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

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. Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m19 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population77,610-
People per km²6,468-
Museums within 10 km20
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 Phuket 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.