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 Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica or Zurich?

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 Zurich for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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, Zurich 45: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40, Zurich 53: Zurich leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30, Zurich 62: Zurich leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78, Zurich 80: Zurich leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 72 points.
Good for families. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35, Zurich 76: Zurich leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 80 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12, Zurich 66: Zurich leads by 54 points.
Affordability. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25, Zurich 3: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70, Zurich 58: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and Zurich.

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.

Zurich
Best match
63match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaZurich

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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaZurich
Official languageSpanishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation19 m408 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta Teresa, Costa RicaZurich
City population-440,935
People per km²-5,016
Museums within 10 km063
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Zurich 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. 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.