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
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Seoul?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Seoul for

  • shopping
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Seoul 75: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 65 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 72 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 73 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Seoul 50: Seoul leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Seoul.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping 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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaSeoul

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

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSeoul
Official languageSpanishKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Won (KRW)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation19 m38 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSeoul
City population-9,668,465
People per km²-15,973
Museums within 10 km081
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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