VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Orange Beach 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 Orange Beach for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Orange Beach 86, Tamarindo 85: Orange Beach leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Tamarindo 38: Orange Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Tamarindo 5: Orange Beach leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Tamarindo 28: Orange Beach leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Tamarindo 55: Orange Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Tamarindo 18: Orange Beach leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, Tamarindo 36: Orange Beach leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach 32, Tamarindo 10: Orange Beach leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Orange Beach
41match

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

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on getting around 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.

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 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
Orange BeachTamarindo

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. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachTamarindo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m27 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachTamarindo
City population8,0957,132
People per km²19657
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Orange Beach 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.