VacationSelector
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Tamarindo or Zadar?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Zadar for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Zadar’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, Zadar 72: Tamarindo leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Tamarindo 38, Zadar 45: Zadar leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Tamarindo 5, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Tamarindo 45, Zadar 38: Tamarindo leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tamarindo 76, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Tamarindo 28, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Tamarindo and Zadar are level on 55.
Getting around. Tamarindo 32, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Tamarindo 18, Zadar 27: Zadar leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Tamarindo 36, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tamarindo 10, Zadar 28: Zadar leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tamarindo 45, Zadar 35: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tamarindo and Zadar.

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.

Zadar
Best match
51match

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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Zadar in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
TamarindoZadar

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.

Zadar 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). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTamarindoZadar
Official languageSpanishCroatian
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation27 m5 m
Main airportDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureTamarindoZadar
City population7,13270,779
People per km²57-
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Zadar 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.