VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Paphos 76, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Tamarindo 38: Paphos leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Tamarindo 5: Paphos leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Tamarindo 28: Paphos leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Tamarindo 55: Paphos leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Tamarindo 32: Paphos leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Tamarindo 18: Paphos leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Tamarindo 36: Paphos leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Tamarindo 10: Paphos leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Paphos
Best match
50match

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

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
27 °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
PaphosTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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.

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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosTamarindo
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation72 m27 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosTamarindo
City population35,9617,132
People per km²1,98757
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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