VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or Myrtle Beach?

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 Mazatlan for

  • food and drink
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Myrtle Beach for

  • families
  • shopping
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Myrtle Beach’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. Mazatlan 80, Myrtle Beach 84: Myrtle Beach leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Myrtle Beach 38: Mazatlan leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Myrtle Beach 20: Mazatlan leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Myrtle Beach 42: Mazatlan leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Myrtle Beach 46: Mazatlan leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Myrtle Beach 50: Myrtle Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Myrtle Beach 80: Myrtle Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Myrtle Beach 18: Mazatlan leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Myrtle Beach 38: Myrtle Beach leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Myrtle Beach 52: Mazatlan leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Myrtle Beach 30: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Myrtle Beach 28: Mazatlan leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Myrtle Beach.

Your match

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

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on food and drink and getting around with your weighting.

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on families and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanMyrtle Beach

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach 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. Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre). Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanMyrtle Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation139 m8 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanMyrtle Beach
City population441,97535,682
People per km²-591
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Mazatlan or Myrtle Beach 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.