VacationSelector
A lifeguard stand on South Beach, Miami
MiamiA lifeguard stand on South Beach
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Miami by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Miami 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 Miami for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • 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. Miami 90, Tamarindo 85: Miami leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Miami 72, Tamarindo 38: Miami leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Miami 57, Tamarindo 5: Miami leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Miami 82, Tamarindo 45: Miami leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami 64, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Miami 42, Tamarindo 28: Miami leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Miami 64, Tamarindo 55: Miami leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Miami 35, Tamarindo 32: Miami leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Miami 71, Tamarindo 18: Miami leads by 53 points.
Affordability. Miami 27, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami 55, Tamarindo 10: Miami leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami 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: Miami and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Miami
Best match
59match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Miami in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MiamiTamarindo

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. Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMiamiTamarindo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation2 m27 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)7 km from centre198 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMiamiTamarindo
City population442,2417,132
People per km²3,04657
Museums within 10 km170
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 Miami 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). 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. 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.