VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Las Vegas 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 Las Vegas for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Las Vegas 10, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, Tamarindo 38: Las Vegas leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, Tamarindo 5: Las Vegas leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, Tamarindo 45: Las Vegas leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas 68, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, Tamarindo 28: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, Tamarindo 32: Las Vegas leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, Tamarindo 18: Las Vegas leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, Tamarindo 10: Las Vegas leads by 68 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 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: Las Vegas and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Las Vegas
Best match
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasTamarindo

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. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasTamarindo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation610 m27 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLas VegasTamarindo
City population641,9037,132
People per km²1,84357
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Las Vegas 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.