VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Cebu’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. Cebu 60, Mazatlan 80: Mazatlan leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, Mazatlan 66: Mazatlan leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Mazatlan 45: Mazatlan leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Mazatlan 60: Mazatlan leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Mazatlan 30: Cebu leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Mazatlan 70: Cebu leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Mazatlan 35: Cebu leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Cebu
48match

Wins on wellness and shopping with your weighting.

Mazatlan
Best match
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.

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 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
CebuMazatlan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCebuMazatlan
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation135 m139 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuMazatlan
City population965,332441,975
People per km²3,065-
Museums within 10 km53
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 Cebu 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.