VacationSelector
The Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi
HanoiThe Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

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

Hanoi 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 Hanoi for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Hanoi 6, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Hanoi 85, Tamarindo 38: Hanoi leads by 47 points.
Culture & sights. Hanoi 72, Tamarindo 5: Hanoi leads by 67 points.
Nightlife. Hanoi 50, Tamarindo 45: Hanoi leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hanoi 52, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Hanoi 58, Tamarindo 28: Hanoi leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Hanoi 35, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Hanoi 36, Tamarindo 32: Hanoi leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Hanoi 50, Tamarindo 18: Hanoi leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Hanoi 98, Tamarindo 36: Hanoi leads by 62 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hanoi 40, Tamarindo 10: Hanoi leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hanoi 46, Tamarindo 45: Hanoi leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hanoi and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Hanoi
Best match
52match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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.

Hanoi in July

34 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
311 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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
HanoiTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Hanoi's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Phu Lien.

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. Hanoi: 1991-2020 normals, Ha Noi (4.4 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHanoiTamarindo
Official languageVietnameseSpanish
CurrencyDong (VND)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114911
Elevation10 m27 m
Main airportNoi Bai International Airport (HAN)22 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHanoiTamarindo
City population8,717,6007,132
People per km²2,59557
Museums within 10 km140
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 Hanoi 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.