VacationSelector
The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta
JakartaThe Istiqlal Mosque
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Jakarta by Antonyus Bunjamin, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Jakarta 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 Jakarta for

  • shopping
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Jakarta’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. Jakarta 28, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Jakarta 78, Tamarindo 38: Jakarta leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Jakarta 48, Tamarindo 5: Jakarta leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Jakarta 66, Tamarindo 45: Jakarta leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Jakarta 30, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Jakarta 45, Tamarindo 28: Jakarta leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Jakarta 50, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Jakarta 36, Tamarindo 32: Jakarta leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Jakarta 64, Tamarindo 18: Jakarta leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Jakarta 80, Tamarindo 36: Jakarta leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Jakarta 42, Tamarindo 10: Jakarta leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Jakarta 46, Tamarindo 45: Jakarta leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Jakarta and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Jakarta
Best match
51match

Wins on shopping 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.

Jakarta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
12 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
JakartaTamarindo

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. Jakarta: 1991-2020 normals, Jakarta / Observatory (1.1 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJakartaTamarindo
Official languageIndonesianSpanish
CurrencyRupiah (IDR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation91 m27 m
Main airportSoekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)20 km from centre89 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureJakartaTamarindo
City population11,135,1917,132
People per km²16,82157
Museums within 10 km440
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Jakarta 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.