VacationSelector
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Scottsdale 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 Scottsdale for

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

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Scottsdale 8, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Scottsdale 46, Tamarindo 38: Scottsdale leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Scottsdale 38, Tamarindo 5: Scottsdale leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Scottsdale 52, Tamarindo 45: Scottsdale leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Scottsdale 68, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Scottsdale 50, Tamarindo 28: Scottsdale leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Scottsdale 60, Tamarindo 55: Scottsdale leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Scottsdale 20, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Scottsdale 60, Tamarindo 18: Scottsdale leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Scottsdale 32, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Scottsdale 40, Tamarindo 10: Scottsdale leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Scottsdale 72, Tamarindo 45: Scottsdale leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Scottsdale and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Scottsdale
Best match
46match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ScottsdaleTamarindo

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. Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureScottsdaleTamarindo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation380 m27 m
Main airportPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre149 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureScottsdaleTamarindo
City population241,3617,132
People per km²-57
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Scottsdale 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.