VacationSelector
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Sao Paulo 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 Sao Paulo for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Sao Paulo 42, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Sao Paulo 84, Sarasota 44: Sao Paulo leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Sao Paulo 60, Sarasota 45: Sao Paulo leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Sao Paulo 86, Sarasota 28: Sao Paulo leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sao Paulo 48, Sarasota 55: Sarasota leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Sao Paulo 47, Sarasota 50: Sarasota leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Sao Paulo 52, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Sao Paulo 44, Sarasota 28: Sao Paulo leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Sao Paulo 70, Sarasota 40: Sao Paulo leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Sao Paulo 62, Sarasota 30: Sao Paulo leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sao Paulo 76, Sarasota 58: Sao Paulo leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sao Paulo 25, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sao Paulo and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

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.

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Sao PauloSarasota

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. Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSao PauloSarasota
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCN60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation760 m7 m
Main airportSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSao PauloSarasota
City population11,451,99954,842
People per km²7,519840
Museums within 10 km903
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sao Paulo 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.