VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
Mountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola, Telluride
TellurideMountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Telluride by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Tamarindo or Telluride?

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
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Telluride for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Telluride’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, Telluride 5: Tamarindo leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo and Telluride are level on 38.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Telluride 20: Telluride leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Telluride 20: Tamarindo leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Telluride 93: Telluride leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Telluride 30: Telluride leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Telluride 45: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Telluride 66: Telluride leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Telluride 25: Telluride leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Telluride 7: Tamarindo leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Telluride 35: Telluride leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo and Telluride are level on 45.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Telluride.

Your match

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

Tamarindo
Best match
39match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Telluride
36match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Telluride in July

23 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoTelluride

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.

Telluride 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). Telluride: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Telluride / Lime (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoTelluride
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation27 m2,667 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsMontrose Regional Airport (MTJ)64 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoTelluride
City population7,1322,607
People per km²571,372
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tamarindo or Telluride 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.