VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santiago 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 for

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

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • 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. Santiago 12, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Sayulita 42: Santiago leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Sayulita 7: Santiago leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Santiago 60, Sayulita 33: Santiago leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Sayulita 72: Santiago leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Santiago 70, Sayulita 42: Santiago leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Sayulita 42: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Sayulita 48: Santiago leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Sayulita 33: Santiago leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Sayulita 45: Santiago leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago 55, Sayulita 12: Santiago leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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 in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 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
SantiagoSayulita

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: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoSayulita
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132911
Elevation575 m2 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoSayulita
City population6,257,5163,390
People per km²7,468-
Museums within 10 km540
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Santiago 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.