VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Helsinki 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 Helsinki for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Helsinki 28, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, Sayulita 42: Helsinki leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, Sayulita 7: Helsinki leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, Sayulita 33: Helsinki leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, Sayulita 72: Sayulita leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, Sayulita 42: Helsinki leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, Sayulita 42: Helsinki leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, Sayulita 48: Helsinki leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, Sayulita 33: Helsinki leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, Sayulita 45: Sayulita leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, Sayulita 12: Helsinki leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, Sayulita 58: Helsinki leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Helsinki
Best match
59match

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

Sayulita
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.

Helsinki in July

22 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiSayulita

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. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiSayulita
Official languageFinnish, SwedishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation17 m2 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiSayulita
City population694,3923,390
People per km²3,239-
Museums within 10 km740
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Helsinki 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.