VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or Nairobi?

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

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Nairobi for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Nairobi’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, Nairobi 4: Mazatlan leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Nairobi 48: Mazatlan leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Nairobi 35: Mazatlan leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Nairobi 58: Nairobi leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Nairobi 84: Nairobi leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Nairobi 28: Mazatlan leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Nairobi 55: Mazatlan leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Nairobi 20: Mazatlan leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Nairobi 45: Nairobi leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Nairobi 60: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Nairobi 35: Mazatlan leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Nairobi 25: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Nairobi.

Your match

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

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Nairobi
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanNairobi

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). Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanNairobi
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7UTC+3
Emergency number911Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation139 m1,661 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanNairobi
City population441,9755,545,000
People per km²-7,967
Museums within 10 km34
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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