VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston 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 Charleston for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Charleston 72, Mazatlan 80: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Mazatlan 62: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Mazatlan 42: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Mazatlan 66: Mazatlan leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Mazatlan 45: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Charleston and Mazatlan are level on 60.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Mazatlan 42: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Mazatlan 30: Charleston leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Mazatlan 40: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Mazatlan 35: Charleston leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Charleston
53match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

Mazatlan
52match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 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
CharlestonMazatlan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonMazatlan
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m139 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonMazatlan
City population150,227441,975
People per km²532-
Museums within 10 km193
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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