VacationSelector
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Shanghai 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 Shanghai for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • day trips

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • 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. Shanghai 10, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Shanghai 88, Tamarindo 38: Shanghai leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. Shanghai 72, Tamarindo 5: Shanghai leads by 67 points.
Nightlife. Shanghai 80, Tamarindo 45: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Shanghai 25, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 51 points.
Day trips. Shanghai 90, Tamarindo 28: Shanghai leads by 62 points.
Good for families. Shanghai 80, Tamarindo 55: Shanghai leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Shanghai 85, Tamarindo 32: Shanghai leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Shanghai 82, Tamarindo 18: Shanghai leads by 64 points.
Affordability. Shanghai 55, Tamarindo 36: Shanghai leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Shanghai 66, Tamarindo 10: Shanghai leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Shanghai 55, Tamarindo 45: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Shanghai and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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.

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 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
ShanghaiTamarindo

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. Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureShanghaiTamarindo
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation4 m27 m
Main airportShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureShanghaiTamarindo
City population24,870,8957,132
People per km²3,92257
Museums within 10 km450
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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