VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or Ottawa?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Ottawa’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, Ottawa 35: Mazatlan leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Ottawa 45: Mazatlan leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Ottawa 35: Mazatlan leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Ottawa 40: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Ottawa 40: Mazatlan leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 20 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Mazatlan
52match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanOttawa

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). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanOttawa
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation139 m70 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanOttawa
City population441,9751,017,449
People per km²-366
Museums within 10 km320
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Ottawa 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.