VacationSelector
Palms on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu
HonoluluPalms on Waikiki Beach
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Honolulu by Jess Loiterton, Pexels License; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Honolulu 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 Honolulu for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • day trips

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. Honolulu 91, Sayulita 80: Honolulu leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Honolulu 70, Sayulita 42: Honolulu leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Honolulu 55, Sayulita 7: Honolulu leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Honolulu 45, Sayulita 33: Honolulu leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Honolulu 88, Sayulita 72: Honolulu leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Honolulu 38, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Honolulu 80, Sayulita 42: Honolulu leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Honolulu 52, Sayulita 48: Honolulu leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Honolulu 60, Sayulita 33: Honolulu leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Honolulu 15, Sayulita 45: Sayulita leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Honolulu 40, Sayulita 12: Honolulu leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Honolulu 50, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Honolulu and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Honolulu
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights and families with your weighting.

Sayulita
43match

Wins on prices 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.

Honolulu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
HonoluluSayulita

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. Honolulu: 1991-2020 normals, Honolulu International Airport (10.1 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHonoluluSayulita
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-10UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation12 m2 m
Main airportDaniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHonoluluSayulita
City population350,9643,390
People per km²1,981-
Museums within 10 km120
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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