VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

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. Cape Town 58, Mazatlan 80: Mazatlan leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Mazatlan 62: Cape Town leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Mazatlan 42: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Mazatlan 55: Cape Town leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Mazatlan 66: Cape Town leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Mazatlan 45: Cape Town leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Mazatlan 60: Mazatlan leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Mazatlan 30: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Mazatlan 70: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Mazatlan 40: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Mazatlan 35: Cape Town leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Mazatlan
52match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 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
Cape TownMazatlan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownMazatlan
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-7
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m139 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownMazatlan
City population3,776,313441,975
People per km²1,538-
Museums within 10 km223
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town 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. 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. 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.