VacationSelector
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Oslo 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 Oslo for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • 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. Oslo 36, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Oslo 55, Tamarindo 38: Oslo leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Oslo 66, Tamarindo 5: Oslo leads by 61 points.
Nightlife. Oslo 48, Tamarindo 45: Oslo leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oslo 82, Tamarindo 76: Oslo leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Oslo 52, Tamarindo 28: Oslo leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Oslo 63, Tamarindo 55: Oslo leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Oslo 85, Tamarindo 32: Oslo leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Oslo 50, Tamarindo 18: Oslo leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Oslo 14, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oslo 62, Tamarindo 10: Oslo leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oslo 60, Tamarindo 45: Oslo leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oslo and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Oslo
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches 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.

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 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
OsloTamarindo

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. Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsloTamarindo
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiSpanish
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110911
Elevation23 m27 m
Main airportOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsloTamarindo
City population717,7107,132
People per km²-57
Museums within 10 km600
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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