VacationSelector
Palms on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu
HonoluluPalms on Waikiki Beach
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Honolulu by Jess Loiterton, Pexels License; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Honolulu 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 Honolulu for

  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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. Honolulu 91, Mazatlan 80: Honolulu leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Honolulu 70, Mazatlan 62: Honolulu leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Honolulu 55, Mazatlan 42: Honolulu leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Honolulu 45, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Honolulu 88, Mazatlan 66: Honolulu leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Honolulu 38, Mazatlan 45: Mazatlan leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Honolulu 80, Mazatlan 60: Honolulu leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Honolulu 52, Mazatlan 42: Honolulu leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Honolulu 60, Mazatlan 30: Honolulu leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Honolulu 15, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. Honolulu and Mazatlan are level on 40.
Wellness & relaxation. Honolulu 50, Mazatlan 35: Honolulu leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Honolulu and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Honolulu
Best match
57match

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

Mazatlan
52match

Wins on prices 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.

Honolulu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °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
HonoluluMazatlan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Honolulu: 1991-2020 normals, Honolulu International Airport (10.1 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHonoluluMazatlan
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-10UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation12 m139 m
Main airportDaniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHonoluluMazatlan
City population350,964441,975
People per km²1,981-
Museums within 10 km123
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Honolulu 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.