VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Mazatlan?

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 Akumal for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Mazatlan for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Mazatlan’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. Akumal 88, Mazatlan 80: Akumal leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Mazatlan 66: Akumal leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Mazatlan 45: Akumal leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Mazatlan 60: Akumal leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Mazatlan 30: Mazatlan leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Mazatlan 35: Akumal leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Akumal in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Mazatlan in July

34 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalMazatlan

Where the figures come from

Akumal 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. Akumal: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalMazatlan
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m139 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalMazatlan
City population2,154441,975
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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