VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
The Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms, Tangier
TangierThe Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tangier by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Tamarindo or Tangier?

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 Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Tangier for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Tangier’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. Tamarindo 85, Tangier 50: Tamarindo leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Tangier 58: Tangier leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Tangier 57: Tangier leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Tangier 30: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Tangier 55: Tamarindo leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Tangier 72: Tangier leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Tangier 35: Tamarindo leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Tangier 40: Tangier leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Tangier 42: Tangier leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Tangier 76: Tangier leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Tangier 28: Tangier leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Tangier 50: Tangier leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Tangier.

Your match

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

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tangier
Best match
49match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Tangier in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoTangier

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. Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre). Tangier: 1991-2020 normals, Tanger Aerodrome (9.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoTangier
Official languageSpanishArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1
Emergency number911Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation27 m56 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsTangier Ibn Battuta Airport (TNG)11 km from centre50 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoTangier
City population7,1321,275,428
People per km²576,393
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tamarindo or Tangier 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). 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.