VacationSelector
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Gulf Shores 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 Gulf Shores for

  • families
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Gulf Shores 84, Mazatlan 80: Gulf Shores leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Gulf Shores 38, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Gulf Shores 12, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Gulf Shores 32, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gulf Shores 52, Mazatlan 66: Mazatlan leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Gulf Shores 52, Mazatlan 45: Gulf Shores leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Gulf Shores 75, Mazatlan 60: Gulf Shores leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Gulf Shores 15, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Gulf Shores 22, Mazatlan 30: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Gulf Shores 42, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gulf Shores 27, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gulf Shores 28, Mazatlan 35: Mazatlan leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gulf Shores and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Gulf Shores
40match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 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
Gulf ShoresMazatlan

Where the figures come from

Gulf Shores 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. Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGulf ShoresMazatlan
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
Elevation2 m139 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureGulf ShoresMazatlan
City population15,014441,975
People per km²207-
Museums within 10 km13
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 Gulf Shores 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.