VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Alta, Utah or Sayulita?

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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Sayulita’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. Alta, Utah 3, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Sayulita 7: Sayulita leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Sayulita 72: Alta, Utah leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Sayulita 48: Sayulita leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Sayulita 45: Sayulita leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Sayulita 12: Sayulita leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sayulita
Best match
43match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alta, Utah in July

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

Sayulita in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
342 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahSayulita

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Sayulita has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahSayulita
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,610 m2 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahSayulita
City population2283,390
People per km²19-
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Sayulita somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.