VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Tamarindo or Tromso?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’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, Tromso 8: Tamarindo leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Tromso 36: Tamarindo leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Tromso 27: Tromso leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Tromso 38: Tamarindo leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Tromso 14: Tamarindo leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Tromso 45: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Tromso 15: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Tromso 11: Tamarindo leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Tromso 32: Tromso leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Tromso 38: Tamarindo leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Tromso.

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.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoTromso

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). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoTromso
Official languageSpanishNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation27 m20 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoTromso
City population7,13279,943
People per km²5732
Museums within 10 km08
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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