VacationSelector
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santiago de Compostela 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 Santiago de Compostela for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’s own page.

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Santiago de Compostela 32, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Santiago de Compostela 68, Tamarindo 38: Santiago de Compostela leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago de Compostela 70, Tamarindo 5: Santiago de Compostela leads by 65 points.
Nightlife. Santiago de Compostela and Tamarindo are level on 45.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago de Compostela 62, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Santiago de Compostela 72, Tamarindo 28: Santiago de Compostela leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Santiago de Compostela 42, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Santiago de Compostela 70, Tamarindo 32: Santiago de Compostela leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago de Compostela 35, Tamarindo 18: Santiago de Compostela leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Santiago de Compostela 64, Tamarindo 36: Santiago de Compostela leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago de Compostela 40, Tamarindo 10: Santiago de Compostela leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago de Compostela 42, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago de Compostela and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Santiago de Compostela
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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.

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °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
Santiago de CompostelaTamarindo

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. Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSantiago de CompostelaTamarindo
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
Elevation260 m27 m
Main airportSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiago de CompostelaTamarindo
City population100,9657,132
People per km²45957
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Santiago de Compostela 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.