VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
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: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Jose 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 San Jose for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. San Jose 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: San Jose leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: San Jose leads by 66 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: San Jose leads by 30 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: San Jose leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: San Jose leads by 36 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: San Jose leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

San Jose
Best match
45match

Wins on day trips and shopping 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.

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 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
San JoseSanta 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. San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation25 m19 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population1,013,240-
People per km²2,167-
Museums within 10 km190
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose 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.