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 red aerial tram nearing the top of Hidden Peak, Snowbird
SnowbirdThe red aerial tram nearing the top of Hidden Peak

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

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Snowbird?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Snowbird for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Snowbird’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, Snowbird 5: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Snowbird 20: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Snowbird 5: Snowbird leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Snowbird 9: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Snowbird 92: Snowbird leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Snowbird 47: Snowbird leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Snowbird 42: Snowbird leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Snowbird 40: Snowbird leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Snowbird 8: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Snowbird 15: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Snowbird are level on 8.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Snowbird 40: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Snowbird.

Your match

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

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
Best match
34match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Snowbird
28match

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

Snowbird in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaSnowbird

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.

Snowbird has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Snowbird: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSnowbird
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation19 m2,479 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)36 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSnowbird
Museums within 10 km00
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 Snowbird 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.