VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Tamarindo or Varanasi?

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
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Varanasi’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, Varanasi 4: Tamarindo leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 75 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Varanasi 10: Tamarindo leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Varanasi 18: Tamarindo leads by 58 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Varanasi 5: Tamarindo leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Varanasi 28: Tamarindo leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Varanasi 30: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Varanasi in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
249 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoVaranasi

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.

Varanasi has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoVaranasi
Official languageSpanishHindi, English
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation27 m76 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoVaranasi
City population7,1321,198,491
People per km²5714,598
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Varanasi 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.