VacationSelector
The Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace, Split
SplitThe Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Split by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Split 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 Split for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Split 75, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Split 57, Tamarindo 38: Split leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Split 66, Tamarindo 5: Split leads by 61 points.
Nightlife. Split 52, Tamarindo 45: Split leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Split 77, Tamarindo 76: Split leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Split 78, Tamarindo 28: Split leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Split 54, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Split 67, Tamarindo 32: Split leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Split 32, Tamarindo 18: Split leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Split 45, Tamarindo 36: Split leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Split 37, Tamarindo 10: Split leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Split 40, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Split and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Split
Best match
57match

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

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Split in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
25 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °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
SplitTamarindo

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. Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSplitTamarindo
Official languageCroatianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m27 m
Main airportSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSplitTamarindo
City population160,5777,132
People per km²-57
Museums within 10 km110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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