VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Tamarindo or Washington DC?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Washington DC for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Tamarindo leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 79 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Washington DC 64: Tamarindo leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Washington DC 28: Tamarindo leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 57 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Washington DC 26: Tamarindo leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Washington DC.

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.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoWashington DC
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 m72 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoWashington DC
City population7,132689,545
People per km²573,896
Museums within 10 km098
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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