VacationSelector
The Iguazu Falls in the green jungle, Puerto Iguazu
Puerto IguazuThe Iguazu Falls in the green jungle
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Puerto Iguazu by Muhammed Ballan, Pexels License; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Puerto Iguazu 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 Puerto Iguazu for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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. Puerto Iguazu 5, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Iguazu 28, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Iguazu 9, Sayulita 7: Puerto Iguazu leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Iguazu 14, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Iguazu 95, Sayulita 72: Puerto Iguazu leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Puerto Iguazu 33, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Puerto Iguazu 55, Sayulita 42: Puerto Iguazu leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Puerto Iguazu 54, Sayulita 48: Puerto Iguazu leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Iguazu 17, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Puerto Iguazu 48, Sayulita 45: Puerto Iguazu leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Iguazu 7, Sayulita 12: Sayulita leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Iguazu 34, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Iguazu and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Puerto Iguazu
33match

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

Sayulita
Best match
43match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Puerto Iguazu in July

22 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
103 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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
Puerto IguazuSayulita

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. Puerto Iguazu: 1991-2020 normals, Iguazu Aerodrome (17.8 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePuerto IguazuSayulita
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-6
Emergency number117 or 911911
Elevation162 m2 m
Main airportCataratas Del Iguazú International Airport (IGR)18 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto IguazuSayulita
City population54,9033,390
Museums within 10 km00
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 Puerto Iguazu 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.