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 Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb
ZagrebThe Croatian National Theatre

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Zagreb by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Zagreb?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Zagreb for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Zagreb’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, Zagreb 10: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Zagreb 55: Zagreb leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Zagreb 56: Zagreb leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Zagreb 47: Zagreb leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Zagreb 62: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Zagreb 60: Zagreb leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Zagreb 52: Zagreb leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Zagreb 70: Zagreb leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Zagreb 40: Zagreb leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Zagreb 60: Zagreb leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Zagreb 52: Zagreb leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Zagreb 33: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Zagreb.

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.

Zagreb
Best match
50match

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

Zagreb in July

29 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaZagreb

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). Zagreb: 1991-2020 normals, Zagreb / Gric (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaZagreb
Official languageSpanishCroatian
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 m127 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsZagreb Franjo Tuđman International Airport (ZAG)11 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaZagreb
City population-767,131
Museums within 10 km027
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 Zagreb 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.