VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Annecy 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 Annecy for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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. Annecy 55, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Tamarindo 38: Annecy leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Tamarindo 5: Annecy leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Tamarindo 76: Annecy leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Tamarindo 28: Annecy leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Tamarindo 55: Annecy leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Tamarindo 32: Annecy leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Tamarindo 18: Annecy leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Tamarindo 10: Annecy leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Tamarindo 45: Annecy leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Annecy
Best match
50match

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

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Annecy in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
AnnecyTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Annecy 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.

Annecy's sunshine is measured 39 km from the centre, at Geneve-Cointrin.

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. Annecy: 2007-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Annecy / Metz-Tessy (4.4 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyTamarindo
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation418 m27 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyTamarindo
City population132,1177,132
People per km²1,97557
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Annecy 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.