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 White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

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

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Thessaloniki?

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
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 69 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Thessaloniki 66: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 62 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Thessaloniki 52: Thessaloniki leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Thessaloniki 33: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Thessaloniki.

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 beaches with your weighting.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaThessaloniki
Official languageSpanishGreek
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation19 m6 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaThessaloniki
City population-309,617
People per km²-16,042
Museums within 10 km032
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Thessaloniki 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.