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
A chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain, Whistler
WhistlerA chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Whistler by Ruth Hartnup, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Whistler?

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
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Whistler for

  • getting around
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Whistler’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, Whistler 30: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Whistler are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Whistler 20: Whistler leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Whistler 42: Whistler leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Whistler 97: Whistler leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Whistler 30: Whistler leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Whistler 30: Whistler leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Whistler 12: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Whistler 15: Whistler leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Whistler 60: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Whistler.

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 prices with your weighting.

Whistler
Best match
43match

Wins on getting around 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

Whistler in July

25 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaWhistler

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.

Whistler 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). Whistler: 1991-2020 normals, Whistler - Nesters (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaWhistler
Official languageSpanishFrench, English
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation19 m670 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)104 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaWhistler
City population-13,982
People per km²-58
Museums within 10 km01
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 Whistler 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.