VacationSelector
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe
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: Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Puerto Plata 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 Puerto Plata for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’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. Puerto Plata 80, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Plata and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Puerto Plata 35, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Puerto Plata leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Plata 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Puerto Plata leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Plata 68, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Puerto Plata 48, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Puerto Plata leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Puerto Plata 57, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Puerto Plata leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Puerto Plata 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Puerto Plata leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Plata 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Puerto Plata leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Puerto Plata 64, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Puerto Plata leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Plata 18, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Plata 35, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 35 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Puerto Plata
Best match
45match

Wins on prices 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.

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °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
Puerto PlataSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Puerto Plata 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. Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PlataSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation34 m19 m
Main airportGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PlataSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Museums within 10 km10
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 Puerto Plata 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). 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.