VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Aspen 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 Aspen for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Aspen 6, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Tamarindo 38: Aspen leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Tamarindo 5: Aspen leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Tamarindo 76: Aspen leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Tamarindo 28: Aspen leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Aspen and Tamarindo are level on 55.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Tamarindo 32: Aspen leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Tamarindo 18: Aspen leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Tamarindo 10: Aspen leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Tamarindo 45: Aspen leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Aspen
Best match
43match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Tamarindo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
129 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AspenTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Aspen 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.

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. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenTamarindo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,405 m27 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenTamarindo
City population7,0047,132
People per km²70057
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Aspen 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.