VacationSelector
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Sarasota or Scottsdale?

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

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Scottsdale for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Sarasota leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Sarasota 44, Scottsdale 46: Scottsdale leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Sarasota 45, Scottsdale 38: Sarasota leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Sarasota 28, Scottsdale 52: Scottsdale leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sarasota 55, Scottsdale 68: Scottsdale leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Sarasota and Scottsdale are level on 50.
Good for families. Sarasota 68, Scottsdale 60: Sarasota leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Sarasota 28, Scottsdale 20: Sarasota leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Sarasota 40, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Sarasota 30, Scottsdale 32: Scottsdale leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sarasota 58, Scottsdale 40: Sarasota leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sarasota 45, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sarasota and Scottsdale.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Sarasota
48match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Scottsdale
46match

Wins on wellness and nightlife 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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
SarasotaScottsdale

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.

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). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSarasotaScottsdale
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation7 m380 m
Main airportSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSarasotaScottsdale
City population54,842241,361
People per km²840-
Museums within 10 km310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sarasota or Scottsdale 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.