VacationSelector
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral
The pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Sao Paulo or St. Pete Beach?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete Beach’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, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Sao Paulo 84, St. Pete Beach 40: Sao Paulo leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Sao Paulo 60, St. Pete Beach 18: Sao Paulo leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Sao Paulo 86, St. Pete Beach 28: Sao Paulo leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sao Paulo 48, St. Pete Beach 57: St. Pete Beach leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Sao Paulo 47, St. Pete Beach 58: St. Pete Beach leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Sao Paulo 52, St. Pete Beach 72: St. Pete Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Sao Paulo 44, St. Pete Beach 30: Sao Paulo leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Sao Paulo 70, St. Pete Beach 20: Sao Paulo leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Sao Paulo 62, St. Pete Beach 32: Sao Paulo leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sao Paulo 76, St. Pete Beach 20: Sao Paulo leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sao Paulo 25, St. Pete Beach 42: St. Pete Beach leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sao Paulo and St. Pete Beach.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

St. Pete Beach
42match

Wins on beaches and families 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

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 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 PauloSt. Pete Beach

Where the figures come from

St. Pete Beach 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.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 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). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSao PauloSt. Pete Beach
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 m2 m
Main airportSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSao PauloSt. Pete Beach
City population11,451,9998,879
People per km²7,519173
Museums within 10 km902
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 St. Pete Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.