VacationSelector
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Monaco 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 Monaco for

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

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. Monaco 68, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Monaco 57, Tamarindo 38: Monaco leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Monaco 55, Tamarindo 5: Monaco leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Monaco 48, Tamarindo 45: Monaco leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Monaco 70, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Monaco 84, Tamarindo 28: Monaco leads by 56 points.
Good for families. Monaco 60, Tamarindo 55: Monaco leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Monaco 78, Tamarindo 32: Monaco leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Monaco 52, Tamarindo 18: Monaco leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Monaco 3, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Monaco 63, Tamarindo 10: Monaco leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Monaco 55, Tamarindo 45: Monaco leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Monaco and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Monaco
Best match
58match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on prices 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.

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
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
MonacoTamarindo

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. Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMonacoTamarindo
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCEF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation68 m27 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMonacoTamarindo
City population38,8577,132
People per km²18,50357
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Monaco or Tamarindo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.