VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bethany Beach 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 Bethany Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Bethany Beach 72, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Tamarindo 38: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Tamarindo 5: Bethany Beach leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Tamarindo 28: Bethany Beach leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Tamarindo 55: Bethany Beach leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Tamarindo 32: Bethany Beach leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Tamarindo 18: Bethany Beach leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Tamarindo 10: Bethany Beach leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 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: Bethany Beach and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Tamarindo
Best match
39match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Bethany Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
95 mmrain in the month
23 °Csea
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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Bethany Beach's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Salisbury / Quail Ridge.

Bethany Beach 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. Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachTamarindo
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
Elevation3 m27 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachTamarindo
City population9547,132
People per km²31857
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bethany Beach 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.