VacationSelector
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montevideo 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 Montevideo for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Montevideo 55, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Montevideo 57, Sarasota 44: Montevideo leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Montevideo 54, Sarasota 45: Montevideo leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Montevideo 50, Sarasota 28: Montevideo leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montevideo 34, Sarasota 55: Sarasota leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Montevideo 55, Sarasota 50: Montevideo leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montevideo 55, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Montevideo 54, Sarasota 28: Montevideo leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Montevideo 36, Sarasota 40: Sarasota leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Montevideo 42, Sarasota 30: Montevideo leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montevideo 57, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montevideo 38, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montevideo and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Montevideo
49match

Wins on getting around and nightlife 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.

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 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
MontevideoSarasota

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. Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontevideoSarasota
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation41 m7 m
Main airportCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontevideoSarasota
City population1,302,95454,842
People per km²1,785840
Museums within 10 km363
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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