VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • food and drink

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. Havana 64, Mazatlan 80: Mazatlan leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Mazatlan 42: Havana leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Mazatlan 55: Havana leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Mazatlan 66: Mazatlan leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Mazatlan 45: Mazatlan leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Mazatlan 60: Mazatlan leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Havana and Mazatlan are level on 30.
Affordability. Havana 58, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Mazatlan 40: Havana leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Mazatlan 35: Mazatlan leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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
HavanaMazatlan

Where the figures come from

Havana 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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaMazatlan
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105911
Elevation59 m139 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaMazatlan
City population2,492,618441,975
People per km²3,423-
Museums within 10 km123
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Havana 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). 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). Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.