VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
Puente de San Martín over the Tagus, Toledo
ToledoPuente de San Martín over the Tagus

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Toledo by Ввласенко, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Tamarindo or Toledo?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Toledo for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Toledo’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, Toledo 5: Tamarindo leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Toledo 40: Toledo leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Toledo 79: Toledo leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Toledo 22: Tamarindo leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Toledo 40: Tamarindo leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Toledo 78: Toledo leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Toledo 45: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Toledo 64: Toledo leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Toledo 32: Toledo leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Toledo 58: Toledo leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Toledo 22: Toledo leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Toledo 30: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Toledo.

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.

Toledo
Best match
43match

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

Toledo in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
6 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoToledo

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). Toledo: 1991-2020 normals, Toledo (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoToledo
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation27 m523 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)80 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoToledo
City population7,13287,216
People per km²57376
Museums within 10 km013
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Toledo 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.