VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

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. Galway 28, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Sayulita 42: Galway leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Sayulita 7: Galway leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Sayulita 33: Galway leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Sayulita 72: Galway leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Sayulita 42: Galway leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Galway and Sayulita are level on 42.
Getting around. Galway 58, Sayulita 48: Galway leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Sayulita 33: Galway leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Sayulita 45: Sayulita leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Sayulita 12: Galway leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Galway
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sayulita
43match

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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Sayulita in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
342 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
GalwaySayulita

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureGalwaySayulita
Official languageEnglish, IrishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation25 m2 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwaySayulita
City population83,4563,390
People per km²1,563-
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway or Sayulita 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.