VacationSelector
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Siena 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 Siena for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Siena 14, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Siena 62, Tamarindo 38: Siena leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Siena 78, Tamarindo 5: Siena leads by 73 points.
Nightlife. Siena 27, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Siena 65, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Siena 94, Tamarindo 28: Siena leads by 66 points.
Good for families. Siena 38, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Siena 60, Tamarindo 32: Siena leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Siena 35, Tamarindo 18: Siena leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Siena 42, Tamarindo 36: Siena leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Siena 36, Tamarindo 10: Siena leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Siena 55, Tamarindo 45: Siena leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Siena and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Siena
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Tamarindo
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.

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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
SienaTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena 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. Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSienaTamarindo
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation322 m27 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSienaTamarindo
City population52,8127,132
People per km²44657
Museums within 10 km300
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
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 Siena 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). 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. 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.