VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
The Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, Venice
VeniceThe Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Venice by David Vives, Pexels License.

Tamarindo or Venice?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Venice for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Venice’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, Venice 56: Tamarindo leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Venice 60: Venice leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Venice 94: Venice leads by 89 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Venice 27: Tamarindo leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Venice 45: Tamarindo leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Venice 86: Venice leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Venice 45: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Venice 68: Venice leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Venice 57: Venice leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Venice 20: Tamarindo leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Venice 62: Venice leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Venice 40: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Venice.

Your match

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

Tamarindo
39match

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

Venice
Best match
55match

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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Venice in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
61 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoVenice

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.

Venice 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.

Venice's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Treviso / S. Angelo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Venezia / Tessera (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoVenice
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation27 m2 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoVenice
City population7,132250,369
People per km²57602
Museums within 10 km052
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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