VacationSelector
Vieux Nice and the Baie des Anges, Nice
NiceVieux Nice and the Baie des Anges
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Nice by Daniel Stockman, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Nice 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 Nice for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

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. Nice 75, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Nice 66, Tamarindo 38: Nice leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Nice 64, Tamarindo 5: Nice leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Nice 47, Tamarindo 45: Nice leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nice 80, Tamarindo 76: Nice leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Nice 87, Tamarindo 28: Nice leads by 59 points.
Good for families. Nice 57, Tamarindo 55: Nice leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Nice 74, Tamarindo 32: Nice leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Nice 55, Tamarindo 18: Nice leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Nice 35, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nice 45, Tamarindo 10: Nice leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nice 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: Nice and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Nice
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Nice 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
NiceTamarindo

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. Nice: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (8 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNiceTamarindo
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
Elevation0 m27 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)6 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNiceTamarindo
City population357,7377,132
People per km²4,97557
Museums within 10 km170
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 Nice 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). 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. 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.