VacationSelector
The Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens, Adelaide
AdelaideThe Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Adelaide by Ardash Muradian, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Adelaide or Sarasota?

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 Adelaide for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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. Adelaide 68, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Adelaide 72, Sarasota 44: Adelaide leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Adelaide 48, Sarasota 45: Adelaide leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Adelaide 42, Sarasota 28: Adelaide leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Adelaide 66, Sarasota 55: Adelaide leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Adelaide 60, Sarasota 50: Adelaide leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Adelaide 70, Sarasota 68: Adelaide leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Adelaide 57, Sarasota 28: Adelaide leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Adelaide 44, Sarasota 40: Adelaide leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Adelaide 40, Sarasota 30: Adelaide leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Adelaide 63, Sarasota 58: Adelaide leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Adelaide 42, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Adelaide and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Adelaide
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Adelaide in July

16 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
72 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AdelaideSarasota

Where the figures come from

Sarasota 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.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Adelaide: 1991-2020 normals, Adelaide (West Terrace / ngayirdapira) (3.1 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAdelaideSarasota
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9:30, UTC+10:30 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation1 m7 m
Main airportAdelaide International Airport (ADL)6 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAdelaideSarasota
City population1,387,29054,842
People per km²1,071840
Museums within 10 km133
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Adelaide or Sarasota 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.