VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Madrid 5, Mazatlan 80: Mazatlan leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Mazatlan 62: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Mazatlan 42: Madrid leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Mazatlan 55: Madrid leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Mazatlan 66: Mazatlan leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Mazatlan 45: Madrid leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Mazatlan 60: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Mazatlan 42: Madrid leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Mazatlan 30: Madrid leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Mazatlan 40: Madrid leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Mazatlan 35: Madrid leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

Mazatlan
52match

Wins on beaches 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.

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
MadridMazatlan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridMazatlan
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m139 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridMazatlan
City population3,506,730441,975
People per km²5,801-
Museums within 10 km883
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 Madrid 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.