VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License.

Mazatlan or Osaka?

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
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Osaka for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’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, Osaka 34: Mazatlan leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Osaka 91: Osaka leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Osaka 63: Osaka leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Osaka 58: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Osaka 97: Osaka leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Osaka 88: Osaka leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Osaka 90: Osaka leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Osaka 60: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 31 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Osaka.

Your match

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

Mazatlan
52match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on day trips 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

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanOsaka

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). Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanOsaka
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaJapanese
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation139 m20 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanOsaka
City population441,9752,751,862
People per km²-12,340
Museums within 10 km344
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km06
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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