VacationSelector
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Sao Paulo 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 Sao Paulo for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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. Sao Paulo 42, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Sao Paulo 84, Sayulita 42: Sao Paulo leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Sao Paulo 60, Sayulita 7: Sao Paulo leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Sao Paulo 86, Sayulita 33: Sao Paulo leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sao Paulo 48, Sayulita 72: Sayulita leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Sao Paulo 47, Sayulita 42: Sao Paulo leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Sao Paulo 52, Sayulita 42: Sao Paulo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Sao Paulo 44, Sayulita 48: Sayulita leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Sao Paulo 70, Sayulita 33: Sao Paulo leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Sao Paulo 62, Sayulita 45: Sao Paulo leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sao Paulo 76, Sayulita 12: Sao Paulo leads by 64 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sao Paulo 25, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sao Paulo and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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.

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

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
Sao PauloSayulita

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. Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSao PauloSayulita
Official languagePortugueseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCN60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation760 m2 m
Main airportSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSao PauloSayulita
City population11,451,9993,390
People per km²7,519-
Museums within 10 km900
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 Sao Paulo 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). 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. 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. 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.