VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Tamarindo or Virginia Beach?

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
  • wellness
  • beaches

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Tamarindo leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Virginia Beach 42: Virginia Beach leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Virginia Beach 30: Virginia Beach leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Virginia Beach 37: Tamarindo leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Virginia Beach 56: Tamarindo leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Virginia Beach 27: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Virginia Beach 32: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Virginia Beach.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
Best match
46match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoVirginia Beach

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). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation27 m7 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoVirginia Beach
City population7,132459,470
People per km²57-
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Virginia Beach 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.