VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Beijing 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 Beijing for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • 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. Beijing 6, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Tamarindo 38: Beijing leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Tamarindo 5: Beijing leads by 88 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Tamarindo 45: Beijing leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Tamarindo 28: Beijing leads by 57 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Tamarindo 55: Beijing leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Tamarindo 32: Beijing leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Tamarindo 18: Beijing leads by 54 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Tamarindo 36: Beijing leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Tamarindo 10: Beijing leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Tamarindo 45: Beijing leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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.

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 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
BeijingTamarindo

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. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingTamarindo
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation43 m27 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingTamarindo
City population21,893,0957,132
People per km²1,33457
Museums within 10 km830
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
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 Beijing 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.