VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Monica 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 Santa Monica for

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. Santa Monica 66, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Tamarindo 38: Santa Monica leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Tamarindo 5: Santa Monica leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Tamarindo 28: Santa Monica leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Tamarindo 55: Santa Monica leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Tamarindo 32: Santa Monica leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Tamarindo 18: Santa Monica leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Tamarindo 10: Santa Monica leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica and Tamarindo are level on 45.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on shopping and day trips with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Santa Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 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
Santa MonicaTamarindo

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. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaTamarindo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation32 m27 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaTamarindo
City population93,0767,132
People per km²4,27057
Museums within 10 km190
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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