VacationSelector
The Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel, Amman
AmmanThe Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Amman by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Amman or Tamarindo?

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 Amman for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Amman’s own page.

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Tamarindo’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. Amman 22, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Amman 62, Tamarindo 38: Amman leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Amman 54, Tamarindo 5: Amman leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Amman 32, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amman 45, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Amman 80, Tamarindo 28: Amman leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Amman 38, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Amman 30, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Amman 42, Tamarindo 18: Amman leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Amman 58, Tamarindo 36: Amman leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amman 27, Tamarindo 10: Amman leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amman 55, Tamarindo 45: Amman leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amman and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Amman
Best match
45match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Amman in July

33 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Tamarindo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
129 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AmmanTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Amman 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.

Amman's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Mafraq.

Tamarindo's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Liberia.

Tamarindo 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. Amman: 1994-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Amman Airport (6 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmmanTamarindo
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation776 m27 m
Main airportQueen Alia International Airport (AMM)26 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmmanTamarindo
City population4,007,5267,132
People per km²2,38557
Museums within 10 km80
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amman or Tamarindo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.