VacationSelector
Banff Avenue below Cascade Mountain, Banff
BanffBanff Avenue below Cascade Mountain
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Banff by bryan pascual, Pexels License; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Banff 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 Banff for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • getting around

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Banff 12, Mazatlan 80: Mazatlan leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Banff 32, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Banff 22, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Banff 30, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Banff 98, Mazatlan 66: Banff leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Banff 25, Mazatlan 45: Mazatlan leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Banff and Mazatlan are level on 60.
Getting around. Banff 55, Mazatlan 42: Banff leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Banff 28, Mazatlan 30: Mazatlan leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Banff 18, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Banff 32, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Banff 54, Mazatlan 35: Banff leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Banff and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Banff
39match

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

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Banff in July

23 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BanffMazatlan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Banff: 1991-2020 normals, Banff (2 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBanffMazatlan
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,400 m139 m
Main airportCalgary International Airport (YYC)109 km from centre102 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBanffMazatlan
City population8,305441,975
People per km²1,730-
Museums within 10 km43
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Banff 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.