VacationSelector
The Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town, Marbella
MarbellaThe Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Marbella 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 Marbella for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Mazatlan for

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

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. Marbella 76, Mazatlan 80: Mazatlan leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, Mazatlan 55: Marbella leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, Mazatlan 66: Marbella leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, Mazatlan 45: Marbella leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, Mazatlan 60: Marbella leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, Mazatlan 30: Marbella leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, Mazatlan 35: Marbella leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marbella and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Mazatlan
52match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Marbella in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °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
MarbellaMazatlan

Where the figures come from

Marbella's temperatures are measured 40 km from the centre, at Malaga / Aeropuerto.

Marbella 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. Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaMazatlan
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
Elevation22 m139 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaMazatlan
City population159,786441,975
People per km²1,398-
Museums within 10 km63
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marbella 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). 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. 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.