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 beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Virginia Beach?

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 Virginia Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Virginia Beach 42: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Virginia Beach 30: Virginia Beach leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Virginia Beach 37: Virginia Beach leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Virginia Beach 56: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Virginia Beach 27: Virginia Beach leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Virginia Beach 32: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Virginia Beach.

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.

Virginia Beach
Best match
46match

Wins on day trips and families 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaVirginia Beach

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). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation19 m7 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaVirginia Beach
City population-459,470
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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