VacationSelector
Philae temple on the Nile, Aswan
AswanPhilae temple on the Nile
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

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

Aswan 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 Aswan for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Aswan 10, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Aswan 30, Tamarindo 38: Tamarindo leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Aswan 64, Tamarindo 5: Aswan leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Aswan 8, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aswan 45, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Aswan 52, Tamarindo 28: Aswan leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Aswan 32, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Aswan 40, Tamarindo 32: Aswan leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Aswan 30, Tamarindo 18: Aswan leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Aswan 92, Tamarindo 36: Aswan leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aswan 14, Tamarindo 10: Aswan leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aswan 40, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aswan and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Aswan
38match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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.

Aswan in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AswanTamarindo

Where the figures come from

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. Aswan: 1991-2020 normals, Asswan (18 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAswanTamarindo
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation99 m27 m
Main airportAswan International Airport (ASW)16 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAswanTamarindo
City population401,8907,132
People per km²1,07257
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Aswan 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). 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.