VacationSelector
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Macau 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 Macau for

  • food and drink
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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. Macau 24, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Macau 77, Sarasota 44: Macau leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Macau 62, Sarasota 45: Macau leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Macau 40, Sarasota 28: Macau leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Macau 5, Sarasota 55: Sarasota leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Macau 52, Sarasota 50: Macau leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Macau 48, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Macau 60, Sarasota 28: Macau leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Macau 58, Sarasota 40: Macau leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Macau 44, Sarasota 30: Macau leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Macau 36, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Macau 40, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Macau and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Macau
46match

Wins on food and drink and getting around with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Macau in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
281 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MacauSarasota

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. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMacauSarasota
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard Chinese-
CurrencyPataca (MOP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number999911
Elevation22 m7 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMacauSarasota
City population682,10054,842
People per km²5,916840
Museums within 10 km283
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Macau 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.