VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chicago 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 Chicago for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Chicago 50, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Tamarindo 38: Chicago leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Tamarindo 5: Chicago leads by 73 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Tamarindo 45: Chicago leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Tamarindo 28: Chicago leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Tamarindo 55: Chicago leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Tamarindo 32: Chicago leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Tamarindo 18: Chicago leads by 52 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Tamarindo 10: Chicago leads by 72 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 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: Chicago and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

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.

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
21 °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
ChicagoTamarindo

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. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoTamarindo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation179 m27 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoTamarindo
City population2,746,3887,132
People per km²4,52957
Museums within 10 km440
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month12 months

Where else could you go?

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