VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Tamarindo or Wellington?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Wellington for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Tamarindo leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo and Wellington are level on 45.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Wellington 33: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Wellington 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 Wellington.

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.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation27 m0 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoWellington
City population7,132216,200
People per km²57487
Museums within 10 km012
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 Wellington 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.