VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Destin 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 Destin for

  • families
  • shopping
  • beaches

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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. Destin 86, Mazatlan 80: Destin leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Destin 14, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Destin 36, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, Mazatlan 66: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, Mazatlan 45: Mazatlan leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, Mazatlan 60: Destin leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Destin 20, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Destin 40, Mazatlan 30: Destin leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Destin 34, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 33, Mazatlan 35: Mazatlan leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Destin and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Destin
41match

Wins on families and shopping with your weighting.

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Destin in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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
DestinMazatlan

Where the figures come from

Destin 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDestinMazatlan
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m139 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureDestinMazatlan
City population13,931441,975
People per km²636-
Museums within 10 km13
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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