VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Tamarindo or Windhoek?

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
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Windhoek for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Tamarindo leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Windhoek 36: Tamarindo leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Windhoek 30: Windhoek leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Windhoek 25: Tamarindo leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Windhoek 52: Tamarindo leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Windhoek 14: Tamarindo leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo 55, Windhoek 30: Tamarindo leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Windhoek 22: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Windhoek 30: Windhoek leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Windhoek 18: Windhoek leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Windhoek 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 Windhoek.

Your match

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

Tamarindo
Best match
39match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on prices 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoWindhoek

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). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoWindhoek
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation27 m1,650 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoWindhoek
City population7,132486,169
People per km²5795
Museums within 10 km05
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Windhoek 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. 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.