VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
Ushuaia below snow-capped mountains, Ushuaia
UshuaiaUshuaia below snow-capped mountains

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Ushuaia by Jan Tang, Pexels License.

Tamarindo or Ushuaia?

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
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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

Choose Ushuaia for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Ushuaia’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, Ushuaia 3: Tamarindo leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Ushuaia 40: Ushuaia leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Ushuaia 22: Ushuaia leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Ushuaia 18: Tamarindo leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Ushuaia 88: Ushuaia leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Ushuaia 14: Tamarindo leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Ushuaia 40: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Ushuaia 45: Ushuaia leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Ushuaia 22: Ushuaia leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Ushuaia 42: Ushuaia leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo and Ushuaia are level on 10.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Ushuaia 26: Tamarindo leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Ushuaia.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Ushuaia
31match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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

Ushuaia in July

4 °Cdaytime high
0 °Cnight-time low
36 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
No seasea
8 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoUshuaia

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). Ushuaia: 1991-2020 normals, Ushuaia Aerodrome (1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoUshuaia
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation27 m23 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsUshuaia - Malvinas Argentinas International Airport (USH)4 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoUshuaia
City population7,13282,615
People per km²573,592
Museums within 10 km05
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 Ushuaia 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.