VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
The Iguazu Falls in the green jungle, Puerto Iguazu
Puerto IguazuThe Iguazu Falls in the green jungle

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Iguazu by Muhammed Ballan, Pexels License.

Mazatlan or Puerto Iguazu?

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
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Iguazu for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Iguazu’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, Puerto Iguazu 5: Mazatlan leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Puerto Iguazu 28: Mazatlan leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Puerto Iguazu 9: Mazatlan leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Puerto Iguazu 14: Mazatlan leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Puerto Iguazu 95: Puerto Iguazu leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Puerto Iguazu 33: Mazatlan leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Puerto Iguazu 55: Mazatlan leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Puerto Iguazu 54: Puerto Iguazu leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Puerto Iguazu 17: Mazatlan leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Puerto Iguazu 48: Mazatlan leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Puerto Iguazu 7: Mazatlan leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Puerto Iguazu 34: Mazatlan leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Puerto Iguazu.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Puerto Iguazu
33match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Puerto Iguazu in July

22 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
103 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanPuerto Iguazu

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). Puerto Iguazu: 1991-2020 normals, Iguazu Aerodrome (17.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanPuerto Iguazu
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation139 m162 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsCataratas Del Iguazú International Airport (IGR)18 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanPuerto Iguazu
City population441,97554,903
Museums within 10 km30
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 Puerto Iguazu 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.