VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Manila 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 Manila for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Manila 12, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, Sarasota 44: Manila leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, Sarasota 45: Manila leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, Sarasota 28: Manila leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, Sarasota 55: Sarasota leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, Sarasota 50: Sarasota leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, Sarasota 28: Sarasota leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, Sarasota 40: Manila leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, Sarasota 30: Manila leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 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: Manila and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Manila
48match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaSarasota

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. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManilaSarasota
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation9 m7 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaSarasota
City population1,902,59054,842
People per km²76,104840
Museums within 10 km273
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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