VacationSelector
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Lyon by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Lyon 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 Lyon for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Lyon 12, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Lyon 84, Tamarindo 38: Lyon leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Lyon 77, Tamarindo 5: Lyon leads by 72 points.
Nightlife. Lyon 58, Tamarindo 45: Lyon leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lyon 64, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Lyon 77, Tamarindo 28: Lyon leads by 49 points.
Good for families. Lyon 62, Tamarindo 55: Lyon leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Lyon 77, Tamarindo 32: Lyon leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Lyon 58, Tamarindo 18: Lyon leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Lyon 42, Tamarindo 36: Lyon leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lyon 68, Tamarindo 10: Lyon leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lyon 40, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lyon and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Lyon
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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.

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
LyonTamarindo

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. Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLyonTamarindo
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation160 m27 m
Main airportLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLyonTamarindo
City population519,1277,132
People per km²10,83857
Museums within 10 km430
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Lyon 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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. 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.