VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Sarasota 44: Antigua Guatemala leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Sarasota 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Sarasota 28: Antigua Guatemala leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Sarasota 55: Antigua Guatemala leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Sarasota 50: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Sarasota 28: Antigua Guatemala leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Sarasota 40: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Sarasota 30: Antigua Guatemala leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 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: Antigua Guatemala and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaSarasota

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSarasota
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123911
Elevation1,582 m7 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSarasota
City population59,09154,842
People per km²-840
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.