VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Pattaya 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 Pattaya for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Pattaya 66, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Tamarindo 38: Pattaya leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Tamarindo 5: Pattaya leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Tamarindo 45: Pattaya leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Tamarindo 28: Pattaya leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Pattaya and Tamarindo are level on 55.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Tamarindo 32: Pattaya leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Tamarindo 18: Pattaya leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Tamarindo 36: Pattaya leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Tamarindo 10: Pattaya leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Tamarindo 45: Pattaya leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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
PattayaTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

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. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaTamarindo
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation35 m27 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaTamarindo
City population119,5327,132
People per km²-57
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Pattaya 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.