VacationSelector
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Sayulita or Valparaiso?

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
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Valparaiso for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Sayulita leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Sayulita 42, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Sayulita 7, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Sayulita 33, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sayulita 72, Valparaiso 60: Sayulita leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Sayulita 42, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Sayulita 42, Valparaiso 33: Sayulita leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Sayulita 48, Valparaiso 44: Sayulita leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Sayulita 33, Valparaiso 30: Sayulita leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Sayulita 45, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sayulita 12, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sayulita 58, Valparaiso 18: Sayulita leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sayulita and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Sayulita
43match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Valparaiso
Best match
46match

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
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
SayulitaValparaiso

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.

Valparaiso 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.

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. Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSayulitaValparaiso
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation2 m21 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSayulitaValparaiso
City population3,390296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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