VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cocoa 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 Cocoa Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • 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. Cocoa Beach 80, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Tamarindo 38: Tamarindo leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Tamarindo 5: Cocoa Beach leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Tamarindo 28: Cocoa Beach leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Tamarindo 55: Cocoa Beach leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Tamarindo 18: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Tamarindo 36: Cocoa Beach leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Tamarindo 10: Cocoa Beach leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on nightlife and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cocoa Beach in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
147 mmrain in the month
28 °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
Cocoa BeachTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Cocoa 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. Cocoa Beach: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cocoa / Patrick Air Force Base (11.2 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa 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
Elevation0 m27 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachTamarindo
City population11,3547,132
People per km²29057
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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