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
Ushuaia below snow-capped mountains, Ushuaia
UshuaiaUshuaia below snow-capped mountains

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ushuaia by Jan Tang, Pexels License.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Ushuaia?

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 Ushuaia for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Ushuaia’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, Ushuaia 3: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Ushuaia are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Ushuaia 22: Ushuaia leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Ushuaia 18: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Ushuaia 88: Ushuaia leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Ushuaia 14: Ushuaia leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Ushuaia 40: Ushuaia leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Ushuaia 45: Ushuaia leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Ushuaia 22: Ushuaia leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Ushuaia 42: Ushuaia leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Ushuaia 10: Ushuaia leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Ushuaia 26: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 44 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Ushuaia.

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.

Ushuaia
31match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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

Ushuaia in July

4 °Cdaytime high
0 °Cnight-time low
36 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
No seasea
8 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaUshuaia

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). Ushuaia: 1991-2020 normals, Ushuaia Aerodrome (1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaUshuaia
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation19 m23 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsUshuaia - Malvinas Argentinas International Airport (USH)4 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaUshuaia
City population-82,615
People per km²-3,592
Museums within 10 km05
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 Ushuaia 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. 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.