VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Interlaken 30, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Sayulita 7: Interlaken leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Sayulita 72: Interlaken leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Sayulita 42: Interlaken leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Sayulita 42: Interlaken leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Sayulita 48: Interlaken leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Sayulita 45: Sayulita leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Sayulita 12: Interlaken leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 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: Interlaken 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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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.

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenSayulita

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSayulita
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation571 m2 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSayulita
City population6,1233,390
People per km²1,424-
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Interlaken 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.