VacationSelector
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

La Romana 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 La Romana for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • 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. La Romana 84, Sayulita 80: La Romana leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. La Romana 38, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. La Romana 24, Sayulita 7: La Romana leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. La Romana 30, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Romana 62, Sayulita 72: Sayulita leads by 10 points.
Day trips. La Romana 52, Sayulita 42: La Romana leads by 10 points.
Good for families. La Romana 56, Sayulita 42: La Romana leads by 14 points.
Getting around. La Romana 24, Sayulita 48: Sayulita leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. La Romana 28, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 5 points.
Affordability. La Romana 50, Sayulita 45: La Romana leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Romana 17, Sayulita 12: La Romana leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Romana 44, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Romana 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

La Romana
42match

Wins on culture and sights and families with your weighting.

Sayulita
43match

Wins on getting around 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.

La Romana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
28 °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
La RomanaSayulita

Where the figures come from

La Romana's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Punta Cana.

La Romana 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. La Romana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (65.4 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLa RomanaSayulita
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation10 m2 m
Main airportCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa RomanaSayulita
City population139,2383,390
People per km²512-
Museums within 10 km00
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 La Romana 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). 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.