VacationSelector
The old town hall, Boca Raton
Boca RatonThe old town hall
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Boca Raton by Spudgun67, CC0; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Boca Raton 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 Boca Raton for

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • prices

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. Boca Raton 82, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Boca Raton 44, Tamarindo 38: Boca Raton leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Boca Raton 28, Tamarindo 5: Boca Raton leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Boca Raton 32, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boca Raton 50, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Boca Raton 60, Tamarindo 28: Boca Raton leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Boca Raton 62, Tamarindo 55: Boca Raton leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Boca Raton 18, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Boca Raton 54, Tamarindo 18: Boca Raton leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Boca Raton 22, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boca Raton 33, Tamarindo 10: Boca Raton leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boca Raton 42, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boca Raton and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Boca Raton
Best match
44match

Wins on shopping and day trips with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boca Raton in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
191 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
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
Boca RatonTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Boca Raton 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. Boca Raton: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Pompano Beach / Kendall Green (13.6 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBoca RatonTamarindo
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
Elevation4 m27 m
Main airportFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)33 km from centre138 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBoca RatonTamarindo
City population97,4227,132
People per km²1,20357
Museums within 10 km50
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boca Raton 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.