VacationSelector
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Sarasota 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 Sarasota for

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

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Sarasota 86, Sayulita 80: Sarasota leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Sarasota 44, Sayulita 42: Sarasota leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Sarasota 45, Sayulita 7: Sarasota leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Sarasota 28, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sarasota 55, Sayulita 72: Sayulita leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Sarasota 50, Sayulita 42: Sarasota leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Sarasota 68, Sayulita 42: Sarasota leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Sarasota 28, Sayulita 48: Sayulita leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Sarasota 40, Sayulita 33: Sarasota leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Sarasota 30, Sayulita 45: Sayulita leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sarasota 58, Sayulita 12: Sarasota leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sarasota 45, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sarasota and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Sarasota
Best match
48match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sayulita
43match

Wins on getting around 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.

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

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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
SarasotaSayulita

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.

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. Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSarasotaSayulita
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation7 m2 m
Main airportSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSarasotaSayulita
City population54,8423,390
People per km²840-
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sarasota 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.