VacationSelector
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Positano 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 Positano for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • families
  • prices
  • 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. Positano 77, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Positano 40, Tamarindo 38: Positano leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Positano 22, Tamarindo 5: Positano leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Positano 22, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Positano 80, Tamarindo 76: Positano leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Positano 88, Tamarindo 28: Positano leads by 60 points.
Good for families. Positano 28, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Positano 35, Tamarindo 32: Positano leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Positano 45, Tamarindo 18: Positano leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Positano 10, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Positano 15, Tamarindo 10: Positano leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Positano and Tamarindo are level on 45.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Positano and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Positano
Best match
42match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on families 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.

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
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
PositanoTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

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. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePositanoTamarindo
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation142 m27 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePositanoTamarindo
City population3,7297,132
People per km²42957
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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