VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
The CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands, Toronto
TorontoThe CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Toronto by Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Tamarindo or Toronto?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Toronto for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Toronto’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, Toronto 34: Tamarindo leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Toronto 70: Toronto leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Toronto 50: Toronto leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Toronto 62: Toronto leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Toronto 52: Tamarindo leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Toronto 50: Toronto leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Toronto 74: Toronto leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Toronto 65: Toronto leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Toronto 66: Toronto leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Toronto 34: Tamarindo leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Toronto 72: Toronto leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Toronto 33: Tamarindo leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Toronto.

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.

Toronto
Best match
55match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping 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

Toronto in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoToronto

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). Toronto: 1991-2020 normals, Toronto City (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoToronto
Official languageSpanishFrench, English
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation27 m76 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsToronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)20 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoToronto
City population7,1322,794,356
People per km²574,434
Museums within 10 km032
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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