VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai 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 Chiang Mai for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Chiang Mai’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. Chiang Mai 6, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Tamarindo 38: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Tamarindo 5: Chiang Mai leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai and Tamarindo are level on 45.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Tamarindo 28: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai and Tamarindo are level on 55.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Tamarindo 32: Chiang Mai leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Tamarindo 18: Chiang Mai leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Tamarindo 36: Chiang Mai leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Tamarindo 10: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Tamarindo 45: Chiang Mai leads by 37 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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.

Chiang Mai in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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
Chiang MaiTamarindo

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. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiTamarindo
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m27 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiTamarindo
City population1,198,0007,132
People per km²2,95857
Museums within 10 km60
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 Chiang Mai 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.