VacationSelector
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Sapporo 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 Sapporo for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches

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. Sapporo 28, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Sapporo 80, Sayulita 42: Sapporo leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Sapporo 40, Sayulita 7: Sapporo leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Sapporo 62, Sayulita 33: Sapporo leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sapporo 86, Sayulita 72: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Sapporo 64, Sayulita 42: Sapporo leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Sapporo 72, Sayulita 42: Sapporo leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Sapporo 80, Sayulita 48: Sapporo leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Sapporo 58, Sayulita 33: Sapporo leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Sapporo 60, Sayulita 45: Sapporo leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sapporo 44, Sayulita 12: Sapporo leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sapporo 80, Sayulita 58: Sapporo leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sapporo and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sayulita
43match

Wins on beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Sapporo in July

25 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
SapporoSayulita

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. Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSapporoSayulita
Official languageJapaneseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyYen (JPY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation5 m2 m
Main airportNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSapporoSayulita
City population1,959,3133,390
People per km²1,747-
Museums within 10 km330
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month12 months

Where else could you go?

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