VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or Orange 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

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • families
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange 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, Orange Beach 86: Orange Beach leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Orange Beach 40: Mazatlan leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Orange Beach 7: Mazatlan leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Orange Beach 30: Mazatlan leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Orange Beach 60: Mazatlan leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Orange Beach 50: Orange Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Orange Beach 75: Orange Beach leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Orange Beach 15: Mazatlan leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Orange Beach 25: Mazatlan leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Orange Beach 38: Mazatlan leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Orange Beach 32: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Orange Beach 32: Mazatlan leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Orange Beach.

Your match

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

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on families and beaches 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

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanOrange Beach

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). Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanOrange Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation139 m4 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanOrange Beach
City population441,9758,095
People per km²-196
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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