VacationSelector
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Florianopolis 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 Florianopolis for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Florianopolis 85, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Florianopolis 58, Sarasota 44: Florianopolis leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Florianopolis 33, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Florianopolis 60, Sarasota 28: Florianopolis leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florianopolis 78, Sarasota 55: Florianopolis leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Florianopolis and Sarasota are level on 50.
Good for families. Florianopolis 60, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Florianopolis and Sarasota are level on 28.
Shopping & style. Florianopolis 33, Sarasota 40: Sarasota leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Florianopolis 60, Sarasota 30: Florianopolis leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florianopolis 28, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florianopolis and Sarasota are level on 45.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florianopolis and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Florianopolis
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 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
FlorianopolisSarasota

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. Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorianopolisSarasota
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCN60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation3 m7 m
Main airportHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorianopolisSarasota
City population587,48654,842
People per km²870840
Museums within 10 km113
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florianopolis 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.