VacationSelector
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Guilin 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 Guilin for

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

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • shopping

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. Guilin 8, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Guilin 45, Sayulita 42: Guilin leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Guilin 40, Sayulita 7: Guilin leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Guilin 30, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guilin 88, Sayulita 72: Guilin leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Guilin 56, Sayulita 42: Guilin leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Guilin 45, Sayulita 42: Guilin leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Guilin 45, Sayulita 48: Sayulita leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Guilin 28, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Guilin 78, Sayulita 45: Guilin leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guilin 30, Sayulita 12: Guilin leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guilin 40, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guilin and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Guilin
44match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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.

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
GuilinSayulita

Where the figures come from

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. Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureGuilinSayulita
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation153 m2 m
Main airportGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuilinSayulita
City population4,931,1373,390
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Guilin 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. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.