VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Vancouver by Xicotencatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Tamarindo or Vancouver?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Vancouver for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Tamarindo leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Vancouver 42: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Vancouver 45: Vancouver leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Vancouver 27: Tamarindo leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Vancouver 52: Vancouver leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Vancouver 50: Vancouver leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Vancouver.

Your match

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

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Vancouver
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoVancouver

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). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoVancouver
Official languageSpanishFrench, English
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation27 m2 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoVancouver
City population7,132662,248
People per km²575,759
Museums within 10 km026
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 Vancouver 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.