VacationSelector
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Queenstown 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 Queenstown for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • 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. Queenstown 20, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Queenstown 45, Tamarindo 38: Queenstown leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Queenstown 12, Tamarindo 5: Queenstown leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Queenstown 42, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Queenstown 97, Tamarindo 76: Queenstown leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Queenstown 50, Tamarindo 28: Queenstown leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Queenstown 60, Tamarindo 55: Queenstown leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Queenstown 45, Tamarindo 32: Queenstown leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Queenstown 28, Tamarindo 18: Queenstown leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Queenstown 20, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Queenstown 14, Tamarindo 10: Queenstown leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Queenstown 42, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Queenstown
40match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches 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.

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No seasea
9 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
QueenstownTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Queenstown has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQueenstownTamarindo
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriSpanish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number111911
Elevation324 m27 m
Main airportQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureQueenstownTamarindo
City population29,0007,132
People per km²-57
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Queenstown 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). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.