VacationSelector
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Salvador 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 Salvador for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • 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. Salvador 84, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Salvador 66, Tamarindo 38: Salvador leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Salvador 74, Tamarindo 5: Salvador leads by 69 points.
Nightlife. Salvador 70, Tamarindo 45: Salvador leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salvador 52, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Salvador 56, Tamarindo 28: Salvador leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Salvador 42, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Salvador 42, Tamarindo 32: Salvador leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Salvador 42, Tamarindo 18: Salvador leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Salvador 70, Tamarindo 36: Salvador leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salvador 63, Tamarindo 10: Salvador leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salvador 32, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salvador and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 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
SalvadorTamarindo

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. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSalvadorTamarindo
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCN60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation8 m27 m
Main airportDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalvadorTamarindo
City population2,417,6787,132
People per km²3,48957
Museums within 10 km490
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 Salvador 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). 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. 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.