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 Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Shanghai?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 68 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Shanghai 25: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 53 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 78 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 70 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 70 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Shanghai 55: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Shanghai.

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.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaShanghai
Official languageSpanishPutonghua
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation19 m4 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaShanghai
City population-24,870,895
People per km²-3,922
Museums within 10 km045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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