VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or Salt Lake City?

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 Salt Lake City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’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, Salt Lake City 12: Mazatlan leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Salt Lake City 40: Mazatlan leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan and Salt Lake City are level on 42.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Salt Lake City 30: Mazatlan leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Salt Lake City 34: Mazatlan leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Salt Lake City 72: Salt Lake City leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan and Salt Lake City are level on 42.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Salt Lake City 36: Salt Lake City leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Salt Lake City 40: Mazatlan leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Salt Lake City 38: Salt Lake City leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Salt Lake City.

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 prices with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts 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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanSalt Lake City

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). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanSalt Lake City
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation139 m1,288 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanSalt Lake City
City population441,975199,723
People per km²-690
Museums within 10 km312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Salt Lake City 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.