VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Sebastian 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 Sebastian for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. San Sebastian 68, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Tamarindo 38: San Sebastian leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Tamarindo 5: San Sebastian leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 4 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Tamarindo 28: San Sebastian leads by 52 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Tamarindo 55: San Sebastian leads by 11 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Tamarindo 32: San Sebastian leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Tamarindo 18: San Sebastian leads by 22 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Tamarindo 10: San Sebastian leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Tamarindo 45: San Sebastian leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and food and drink 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.

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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
San SebastianTamarindo

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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 Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianTamarindo
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation6 m27 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianTamarindo
City population189,8667,132
People per km²3,11857
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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