Photos: San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.
San Juan 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 San Juan for
- culture and sights
- live music and the arts
- shopping
What lies behind each score is written up on San Juan’s own page.
Choose Tamarindo for
- wellness
- nature and the outdoors
- beaches
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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Juan and Tamarindo.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.
Wins on wellness 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.
San Juan in July
Tamarindo in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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. San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | San Juan | Tamarindo |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, English | Spanish |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Costa Rican Colon (CRC) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-4 | UTC-6 |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 3 m | 27 m |
| Main airport | Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations | Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 21 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | San Juan | Tamarindo |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 342,259 | 7,132 |
| People per km² | 2,847 | 57 |
| Museums within 10 km | 18 | 0 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Juan or Tamarindo somewhere new.