VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Faro 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 Faro for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • 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. Faro 74, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Tamarindo 38: Faro leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Tamarindo 5: Faro leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Tamarindo 28: Faro leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Tamarindo 55: Faro leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Tamarindo 32: Faro leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Tamarindo 18: Faro leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Tamarindo 36: Faro leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Tamarindo 10: Faro leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 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: Faro and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Faro
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 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
FaroTamarindo

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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroTamarindo
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m27 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroTamarindo
City population64,5607,132
People per km²31957
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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