VacationSelector
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cannes 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 Cannes for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • getting around

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • prices
  • 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. Cannes 80, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Cannes 55, Tamarindo 38: Cannes leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cannes 38, Tamarindo 5: Cannes leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Cannes 42, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cannes 72, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cannes 86, Tamarindo 28: Cannes leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Cannes 56, Tamarindo 55: Cannes leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Cannes 68, Tamarindo 32: Cannes leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Cannes 60, Tamarindo 18: Cannes leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Cannes 22, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cannes 38, Tamarindo 10: Cannes leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cannes 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: Cannes and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Cannes
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
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
CannesTamarindo

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. Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCannesTamarindo
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m27 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCannesTamarindo
City population74,3507,132
People per km²3,79357
Museums within 10 km160
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cannes 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.