VacationSelector
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Sarasota 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 Sarasota for

  • prices

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

Choose Sydney for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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. Sarasota 86, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Sarasota 44, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Sarasota 45, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Sarasota 28, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sarasota 55, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Sarasota and Sydney are level on 50.
Good for families. Sarasota 68, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Sarasota 28, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Sarasota 40, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Sarasota 30, Sydney 22: Sarasota leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sarasota 58, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sarasota 45, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sarasota and Sydney.

Your match

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

Sarasota
48match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and food and drink 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

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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
SarasotaSydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSarasotaSydney
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation7 m6 m
Main airportSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSarasotaSydney
City population54,8425,450,496
People per km²840449
Museums within 10 km338
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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