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 City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Valencia?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Valencia for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 64 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Valencia 60: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Valencia 70: Valencia leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 61 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Valencia 55: Valencia leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Valencia 42: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Valencia.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaValencia

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). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaValencia
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation19 m15 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaValencia
City population-840,792
People per km²-6,242
Museums within 10 km045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Valencia 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.