VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or Salvador?

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

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Salvador for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Salvador 52: Mazatlan leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Salvador 42: Mazatlan leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan and Salvador are level on 42.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan and Salvador are level on 70.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Salvador 32: Mazatlan leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Salvador.

Your match

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

Mazatlan
52match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanSalvador

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). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanSalvador
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPortuguese
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation139 m8 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanSalvador
City population441,9752,417,678
People per km²-3,489
Museums within 10 km349
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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