VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Mazatlan 80: Mazatlan leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Mazatlan 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Mazatlan 66: Antigua Guatemala leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Mazatlan 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Mazatlan 60: Mazatlan leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Mazatlan 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Mazatlan 30: Antigua Guatemala leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Mazatlan 35: Antigua Guatemala leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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
Antigua GuatemalaMazatlan

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaMazatlan
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-7
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123911
Elevation1,582 m139 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaMazatlan
City population59,091441,975
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or Mazatlan 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.