VacationSelector
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santiago de Compostela 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 Santiago de Compostela for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’s own page.

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Santiago de Compostela 32, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Santiago de Compostela 68, Sayulita 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago de Compostela 70, Sayulita 7: Santiago de Compostela leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Santiago de Compostela 45, Sayulita 33: Santiago de Compostela leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago de Compostela 62, Sayulita 72: Sayulita leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Santiago de Compostela 72, Sayulita 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Santiago de Compostela and Sayulita are level on 42.
Getting around. Santiago de Compostela 70, Sayulita 48: Santiago de Compostela leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago de Compostela 35, Sayulita 33: Santiago de Compostela leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Santiago de Compostela 64, Sayulita 45: Santiago de Compostela leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago de Compostela 40, Sayulita 12: Santiago de Compostela leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago de Compostela 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: Santiago de Compostela and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Santiago de Compostela
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Sayulita
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.

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °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
Santiago de CompostelaSayulita

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. Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSantiago de CompostelaSayulita
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
Elevation260 m2 m
Main airportSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiago de CompostelaSayulita
City population100,9653,390
People per km²459-
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santiago de Compostela 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.