VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

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

Tamarindo or Valparaiso?

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
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Tamarindo leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Valparaiso 60: Tamarindo leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Valparaiso 33: Tamarindo leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Valparaiso 30: Valparaiso leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Valparaiso 18: Tamarindo leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Valparaiso
Best match
46match

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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoValparaiso

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.

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoValparaiso
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation27 m21 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoValparaiso
City population7,132296,655
People per km²576,180
Museums within 10 km017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Valparaiso 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.