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
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Sarasota?

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

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sarasota for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Sarasota 44: Sarasota leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Sarasota 28: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Sarasota 55: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Sarasota 50: Sarasota leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Sarasota 28: Sarasota leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Sarasota 40: Sarasota leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Sarasota 30: Sarasota leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Sarasota 45: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sarasota
Best match
48match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaSarasota

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.

Sarasota 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.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

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). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSarasota
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation19 m7 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSarasota
City population-54,842
People per km²-840
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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