VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Sebastian 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 San Sebastian for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. San Sebastian 68, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Sayulita 42: San Sebastian leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Sayulita 7: San Sebastian leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Sayulita 33: San Sebastian leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian and Sayulita are level on 72.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Sayulita 42: San Sebastian leads by 38 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Sayulita 42: San Sebastian leads by 24 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Sayulita 48: San Sebastian leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Sayulita 33: San Sebastian leads by 7 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Sayulita 45: Sayulita leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Sayulita 12: San Sebastian leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Sayulita.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

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

Sayulita
43match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianSayulita

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.

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. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianSayulita
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation6 m2 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianSayulita
City population189,8663,390
People per km²3,118-
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Sebastian 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). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.