VacationSelector
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Macau 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 Macau for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Macau 24, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Macau 77, Tamarindo 38: Macau leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Macau 62, Tamarindo 5: Macau leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Macau 40, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Macau 5, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 71 points.
Day trips. Macau 52, Tamarindo 28: Macau leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Macau 48, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Macau 60, Tamarindo 32: Macau leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Macau 58, Tamarindo 18: Macau leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Macau 44, Tamarindo 36: Macau leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Macau 36, Tamarindo 10: Macau leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Macau 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: Macau and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Macau
Best match
46match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Macau in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
281 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
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
MacauTamarindo

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. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMacauTamarindo
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard ChineseSpanish
CurrencyPataca (MOP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number999911
Elevation22 m27 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMacauTamarindo
City population682,1007,132
People per km²5,91657
Museums within 10 km280
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Macau 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). 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. 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.