VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Fes 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 Fes for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Fes 5, Mazatlan 80: Mazatlan leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Fes and Mazatlan are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Mazatlan 42: Fes leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Mazatlan 66: Mazatlan leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Mazatlan 45: Fes leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Mazatlan 60: Mazatlan leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Mazatlan 30: Fes leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Mazatlan 70: Fes leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Mazatlan 35: Fes leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Fes
49match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches 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.

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
FesMazatlan

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesMazatlan
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-7
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation408 m139 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureFesMazatlan
City population1,167,842441,975
People per km²3,650-
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fes 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.