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 Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Sydney?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Sydney for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Sydney 50: Sydney leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 60 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 56 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Sydney 22: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 65 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Sydney 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 Sydney.

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 prices with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaSydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSydney
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation19 m6 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaSydney
City population-5,450,496
People per km²-449
Museums within 10 km038
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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