VacationSelector
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Siem Reap 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 Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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. Siem Reap 5, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Siem Reap 45, Tamarindo 38: Siem Reap leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Siem Reap 88, Tamarindo 5: Siem Reap leads by 83 points.
Nightlife. Siem Reap 42, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Siem Reap 40, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Siem Reap 55, Tamarindo 28: Siem Reap leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Siem Reap 35, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Siem Reap 30, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Siem Reap 38, Tamarindo 18: Siem Reap leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Siem Reap 88, Tamarindo 36: Siem Reap leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Siem Reap 32, Tamarindo 10: Siem Reap leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Siem Reap 60, Tamarindo 45: Siem Reap leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Siem Reap and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Siem Reap
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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.

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 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
Siem ReapTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Siem Reap has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSiem ReapTamarindo
Official languageKhmerSpanish
CurrencyRiel (KHR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsACG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 117, ambulance 119, fire 118911
Elevation18 m27 m
Main airportSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSiem ReapTamarindo
City population147,8667,132
People per km²-57
Museums within 10 km60
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 Siem Reap or Tamarindo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. 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.