VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Edinburgh 22, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Tamarindo 38: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Tamarindo 5: Edinburgh leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Tamarindo 45: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Tamarindo 28: Edinburgh leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Tamarindo 55: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Tamarindo 32: Edinburgh leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Tamarindo 18: Edinburgh leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Tamarindo 10: Edinburgh leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches 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.

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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
EdinburghTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

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. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghTamarindo
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m27 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghTamarindo
City population488,0507,132
People per km²1,88457
Museums within 10 km320
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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