VacationSelector
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Sao Paulo or Sydney?

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

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Sao Paulo 84, Sydney 77: Sao Paulo leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Sao Paulo and Sydney are level on 60.
Nightlife. Sao Paulo 86, Sydney 60: Sao Paulo leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sao Paulo 48, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Sao Paulo 47, Sydney 50: Sydney leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Sao Paulo 52, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Sao Paulo 44, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Sao Paulo 70, Sydney 68: Sao Paulo leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Sao Paulo 62, Sydney 22: Sao Paulo leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sao Paulo 76, Sydney 73: Sao Paulo leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sao Paulo 25, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sao Paulo and Sydney.

Your match

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

Sao Paulo
58match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Sao PauloSydney

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSao PauloSydney
Official languagePortugueseEnglish
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCN60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193000
Elevation760 m6 m
Main airportSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSao PauloSydney
City population11,451,9995,450,496
People per km²7,519449
Museums within 10 km9038
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sao Paulo or Sydney 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.