VacationSelector
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
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Santiago?

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 Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Teresa, Costa Rica’s own page.

Choose Santiago for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84, Santiago 12: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Santiago 70: Santiago leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Santiago 57: Santiago leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Santiago 58: Santiago leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Santiago 37: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Santiago.

Your match

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

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaSantiago

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. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSantiago
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation19 m575 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSantiago
City population-6,257,516
People per km²-7,468
Museums within 10 km054
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Santiago 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). 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. 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.