VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Los Angeles or Sarasota?

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 Los Angeles for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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. Los Angeles 60, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Sarasota 44: Los Angeles leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Sarasota 45: Los Angeles leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Sarasota 28: Los Angeles leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Sarasota 55: Los Angeles leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Sarasota 50: Los Angeles leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Sarasota 68: Los Angeles leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Sarasota 28: Sarasota leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Sarasota 40: Los Angeles leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Sarasota 30: Sarasota leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Sarasota 58: Los Angeles leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Sarasota 45: Los Angeles leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

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.

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesSarasota

Where the figures come from

Sarasota 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.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesSarasota
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation106 m7 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesSarasota
City population3,898,74754,842
People per km²2,994840
Museums within 10 km393
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Angeles or Sarasota 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.