VacationSelector
Château Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace, Quebec City
Quebec CityChâteau Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace
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: Quebec City by Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Quebec City 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 Quebec City for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • 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. Quebec City 18, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Quebec City 57, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Quebec City leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Quebec City 70, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Quebec City leads by 66 points.
Nightlife. Quebec City 42, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Quebec City leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quebec City 79, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Quebec City leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Quebec City 58, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Quebec City leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Quebec City 64, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Quebec City leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Quebec City 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Quebec City leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Quebec City 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Quebec City leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Quebec City 45, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Quebec City leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quebec City 52, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Quebec City leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quebec City 55, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quebec City and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Quebec City
Best match
53match

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

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on beaches 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.

Quebec City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Quebec CitySanta 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. Quebec City: 1991-2020 normals, Beauport (3.2 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuebec CitySanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation98 m19 m
Main airportQuebec Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB)13 km from centre34 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuebec CitySanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population574,482-
People per km²1,184-
Museums within 10 km160
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quebec City 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.