VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
White sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach, Pensacola
PensacolaWhite sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Pensacola by Jason Meredith, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or Pensacola?

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

  • prices
  • getting around
  • food and drink

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

Choose Pensacola for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Pensacola’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, Pensacola 84: Pensacola leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Pensacola 45: Mazatlan leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Pensacola 45: Pensacola leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Pensacola 42: Mazatlan leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Pensacola 62: Mazatlan leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan and Pensacola are level on 45.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Pensacola 62: Pensacola leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Pensacola 18: Mazatlan leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Pensacola 28: Mazatlan leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Pensacola 44: Mazatlan leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Pensacola 36: Mazatlan leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Pensacola 30: Mazatlan leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Pensacola.

Your match

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

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Pensacola
45match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights 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

Pensacola in July

33 °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
MazatlanPensacola

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). Pensacola: 1991-2020 normals, Pensacola / Pleasant Grove (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanPensacola
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 m31 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)6 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanPensacola
City population441,97554,312
People per km²-515
Museums within 10 km35
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months7 months

Where else could you go?

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