VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

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

Huatulco 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 Huatulco for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Mazatlan for

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

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. Huatulco 86, Mazatlan 80: Huatulco leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Mazatlan 66: Huatulco leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Mazatlan 45: Mazatlan leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Mazatlan 60: Mazatlan leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Mazatlan 30: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Mazatlan 35: Huatulco leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Huatulco
43match

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

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Huatulco in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
156 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °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
HuatulcoMazatlan

Where the figures come from

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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. Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoMazatlan
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation220 m139 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoMazatlan
City population7,409441,975
Museums within 10 km03
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 Huatulco 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.