VacationSelector
The Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens, Marrakech
MarrakechThe Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Marrakech by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Marrakech 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 Marrakech for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • prices

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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. Marrakech 7, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Marrakech 64, Sayulita 42: Marrakech leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Marrakech 76, Sayulita 7: Marrakech leads by 69 points.
Nightlife. Marrakech and Sayulita are level on 33.
Nature & outdoors. Marrakech 70, Sayulita 72: Sayulita leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Marrakech 28, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Marrakech 25, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Marrakech 38, Sayulita 48: Sayulita leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Marrakech 72, Sayulita 33: Marrakech leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Marrakech 72, Sayulita 45: Marrakech leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marrakech 25, Sayulita 12: Marrakech leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marrakech 75, Sayulita 58: Marrakech leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marrakech and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Marrakech
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Sayulita
43match

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.

Marrakech in July

38 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Sayulita in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
342 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MarrakechSayulita

Where the figures come from

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. Marrakech: 1991-2020 normals, Marrakech (5.1 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMarrakechSayulita
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation465 m2 m
Main airportMarrakesh Menara Airport (RAK)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarrakechSayulita
City population1,002,6973,390
People per km²4,360-
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Marrakech 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.