VacationSelector
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Sayulita or Shanghai?

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 Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Shanghai for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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. Sayulita 80, Shanghai 10: Sayulita leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Sayulita 42, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Sayulita 7, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 65 points.
Nightlife. Sayulita 33, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sayulita 72, Shanghai 25: Sayulita leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Sayulita 42, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Sayulita 42, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Sayulita 48, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Sayulita 33, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 49 points.
Affordability. Sayulita 45, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sayulita 12, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 54 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sayulita 58, Shanghai 55: Sayulita leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sayulita and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Sayulita
43match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
SayulitaShanghai

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. Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSayulitaShanghai
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPutonghua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation2 m4 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSayulitaShanghai
City population3,39024,870,895
People per km²-3,922
Museums within 10 km045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sayulita or Shanghai somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.