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 red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Wellington?

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

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

Choose Wellington for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Wellington are level on 78.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Wellington 30: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Wellington.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation19 m0 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaWellington
City population-216,200
People per km²-487
Museums within 10 km012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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