VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Sebastian 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 Sebastian for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. San Sebastian 68, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Sarasota 44: San Sebastian leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Sarasota 45: San Sebastian leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Sarasota 28: San Sebastian leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Sarasota 55: San Sebastian leads by 17 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Sarasota 50: San Sebastian leads by 30 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 2 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Sarasota 28: San Sebastian leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian and Sarasota are level on 40.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Sarasota 30: San Sebastian leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Sarasota 45: San Sebastian leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Sarasota.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

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

Sarasota
48match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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 SebastianSarasota

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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 Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 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 SebastianSarasota
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation6 m7 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianSarasota
City population189,86654,842
People per km²3,118840
Museums within 10 km143
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Sebastian 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.