VacationSelector
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Philadelphia 36, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Philadelphia 62, Tamarindo 38: Philadelphia leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Philadelphia 72, Tamarindo 5: Philadelphia leads by 67 points.
Nightlife. Philadelphia 55, Tamarindo 45: Philadelphia leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Philadelphia 52, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Philadelphia 80, Tamarindo 28: Philadelphia leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Philadelphia 68, Tamarindo 55: Philadelphia leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Philadelphia 66, Tamarindo 32: Philadelphia leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Philadelphia 57, Tamarindo 18: Philadelphia leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Philadelphia 40, Tamarindo 36: Philadelphia leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Philadelphia 72, Tamarindo 10: Philadelphia leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Philadelphia 26, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Philadelphia and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Philadelphia
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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.

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
PhiladelphiaTamarindo

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. Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhiladelphiaTamarindo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation12 m27 m
Main airportPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhiladelphiaTamarindo
City population1,603,7977,132
People per km²4,33957
Museums within 10 km540
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Philadelphia 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.