VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Penang 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 Penang for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • 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. Penang 44, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Tamarindo 38: Penang leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Tamarindo 5: Penang leads by 65 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Tamarindo 28: Penang leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Tamarindo 32: Penang leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Tamarindo 18: Penang leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Tamarindo 36: Penang leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Tamarindo 10: Penang leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches 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.

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
12 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
PenangTamarindo

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. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangTamarindo
Official languageMalaySpanish
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number999911
Elevation4 m27 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangTamarindo
City population794,3137,132
People per km²-57
Museums within 10 km90
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Penang 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). 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.