VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Penang 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 Penang for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Penang 44, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Sayulita 42: Penang leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Sayulita 7: Penang leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Sayulita 33: Penang leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Sayulita 72: Sayulita leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Penang and Sayulita are level on 42.
Good for families. Penang 52, Sayulita 42: Penang leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Sayulita 48: Sayulita leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Sayulita 33: Penang leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Sayulita 45: Penang leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Sayulita 12: Penang leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

Sayulita
43match

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.

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Sayulita in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
342 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangSayulita

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. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePenangSayulita
Official languageMalaySpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number999911
Elevation4 m2 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangSayulita
City population794,3133,390
Museums within 10 km90
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Penang 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.