VacationSelector
Bell Rock outside Sedona, Sedona
SedonaBell Rock outside Sedona
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Sedona by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Sedona 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 Sedona for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Sedona 16, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 69 points.
Food & drink. Sedona 33, Tamarindo 38: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Sedona 20, Tamarindo 5: Sedona leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Sedona 8, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sedona 93, Tamarindo 76: Sedona leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Sedona 55, Tamarindo 28: Sedona leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Sedona 42, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Sedona 22, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Sedona 34, Tamarindo 18: Sedona leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Sedona 18, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sedona 13, Tamarindo 10: Sedona leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sedona 82, Tamarindo 45: Sedona leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sedona and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Sedona
36match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

Tamarindo
Best match
39match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Sedona in July

34 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
51 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
SedonaTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Sedona's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Sedona 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.

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. Sedona: 2009-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sedona / West Sedona (1.3 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSedonaTamarindo
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
Elevation1,319 m27 m
Main airportPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)160 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

MeasureSedonaTamarindo
City population9,6847,132
People per km²19557
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Sedona 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.