VacationSelector
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

La Romana 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 La Romana for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. La Romana 84, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. La Romana and Tamarindo are level on 38.
Culture & sights. La Romana 24, Tamarindo 5: La Romana leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. La Romana 30, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Romana 62, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. La Romana 52, Tamarindo 28: La Romana leads by 24 points.
Good for families. La Romana 56, Tamarindo 55: La Romana leads by 1 points.
Getting around. La Romana 24, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. La Romana 28, Tamarindo 18: La Romana leads by 10 points.
Affordability. La Romana 50, Tamarindo 36: La Romana leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Romana 17, Tamarindo 10: La Romana leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Romana 44, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Romana and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

La Romana
Best match
42match

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

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on nightlife 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.

La Romana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
La RomanaTamarindo

Where the figures come from

La Romana's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Punta Cana.

La Romana 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.

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. La Romana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (65.4 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa RomanaTamarindo
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation10 m27 m
Main airportCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa RomanaTamarindo
City population139,2387,132
People per km²51257
Museums within 10 km00
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 La Romana 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). 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.