VacationSelector
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Sorrento 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 Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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. Sorrento 60, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Sorrento 60, Tamarindo 38: Sorrento leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Sorrento 32, Tamarindo 5: Sorrento leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Sorrento 28, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sorrento 80, Tamarindo 76: Sorrento leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Sorrento 95, Tamarindo 28: Sorrento leads by 67 points.
Good for families. Sorrento 42, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Sorrento 58, Tamarindo 32: Sorrento leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Sorrento 38, Tamarindo 18: Sorrento leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Sorrento 32, Tamarindo 36: Tamarindo leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sorrento 20, Tamarindo 10: Sorrento leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sorrento 48, Tamarindo 45: Sorrento leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sorrento and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Sorrento
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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.

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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
SorrentoTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

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. Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSorrentoTamarindo
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
Elevation50 m27 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSorrentoTamarindo
City population15,4077,132
People per km²1,54157
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
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 Sorrento 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). 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. 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.