VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Francisco 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 San Francisco for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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. San Francisco 25, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Sarasota 44: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Sarasota 45: San Francisco leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Sarasota 28: San Francisco leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Sarasota 55: San Francisco leads by 25 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Sarasota 50: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 2 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Sarasota 28: San Francisco leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Sarasota 40: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Sarasota 30: Sarasota leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Sarasota 58: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Sarasota.

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 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
San FranciscoSarasota

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. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoSarasota
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation16 m7 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoSarasota
City population873,96554,842
People per km²1,455840
Museums within 10 km513
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

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