VacationSelector
The Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta
AtlantaThe Georgia State Capitol
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Atlanta by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Atlanta 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 Atlanta for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Atlanta 10, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Atlanta 68, Tamarindo 38: Atlanta leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Atlanta 55, Tamarindo 5: Atlanta leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Atlanta 65, Tamarindo 45: Atlanta leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Atlanta 60, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Atlanta 52, Tamarindo 28: Atlanta leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Atlanta 70, Tamarindo 55: Atlanta leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Atlanta 28, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Atlanta 50, Tamarindo 18: Atlanta leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Atlanta 40, Tamarindo 36: Atlanta leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Atlanta 62, Tamarindo 10: Atlanta leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Atlanta 33, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Atlanta and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Atlanta
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Atlanta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
120 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AtlantaTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Atlanta 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. Atlanta: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Atlanta / Carroll Heights (12.5 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAtlantaTamarindo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation225 m27 m
Main airportHartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)14 km from centre238 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAtlantaTamarindo
City population498,7157,132
People per km²1,43357
Museums within 10 km270
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 Atlanta 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.