VacationSelector
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Guilin 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 Guilin for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. Guilin 8, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Guilin 45, Tamarindo 38: Guilin leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Guilin 40, Tamarindo 5: Guilin leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Guilin 30, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guilin 88, Tamarindo 76: Guilin leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Guilin 56, Tamarindo 28: Guilin leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Guilin 45, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Guilin 45, Tamarindo 32: Guilin leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Guilin 28, Tamarindo 18: Guilin leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Guilin 78, Tamarindo 36: Guilin leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guilin 30, Tamarindo 10: Guilin leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guilin 40, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guilin and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Guilin
Best match
44match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches 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.

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
GuilinTamarindo

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. Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuilinTamarindo
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation153 m27 m
Main airportGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuilinTamarindo
City population4,931,1377,132
People per km²-57
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Guilin 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.