VacationSelector
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Sarasota or Wellington?

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
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Sarasota leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Sarasota 44, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Sarasota 45, Wellington 44: Sarasota leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Sarasota 28, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sarasota 55, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Sarasota 50, Wellington 40: Sarasota leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Sarasota 68, Wellington 62: Sarasota leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Sarasota 28, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Sarasota 40, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Sarasota 30, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sarasota 58, Wellington 56: Sarasota leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sarasota 45, Wellington 30: Sarasota leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sarasota and Wellington.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Sarasota
48match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
SarasotaWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSarasotaWellington
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation7 m0 m
Main airportSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSarasotaWellington
City population54,842216,200
People per km²840487
Museums within 10 km312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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