VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Clearwater 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 Clearwater for

  • families
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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. Clearwater 90, Mazatlan 80: Clearwater leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Mazatlan 66: Mazatlan leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Mazatlan 45: Clearwater leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Mazatlan 60: Clearwater leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Mazatlan 30: Mazatlan leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Mazatlan 35: Clearwater leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Clearwater
45match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Clearwater in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °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
ClearwaterMazatlan

Where the figures come from

Clearwater 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.

Clearwater's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterMazatlan
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
Elevation9 m139 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterMazatlan
City population117,292441,975
People per km²1,154-
Museums within 10 km43
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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