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 old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Sapporo?

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

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sapporo’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, Sapporo 28: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Sapporo 40: Sapporo leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Sapporo 64: Sapporo leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 65 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Sapporo.

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 with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Sapporo in July

25 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaSapporo

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). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSapporo
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation19 m5 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSapporo
City population-1,959,313
People per km²-1,747
Museums within 10 km033
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Sapporo 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.