VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or San Diego?

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
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Diego for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan and San Diego are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, San Diego 50: San Diego leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, San Diego 48: Mazatlan leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, San Diego 77: San Diego leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, San Diego 38: Mazatlan leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, San Diego 44: San Diego leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, San Diego 26: Mazatlan leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, San Diego 56: San Diego leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, San Diego 45: San Diego leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and San Diego.

Your match

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

Mazatlan
52match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Diego
Best match
56match

Wins on families 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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanSan Diego

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). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanSan Diego
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation139 m129 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanSan Diego
City population441,9751,386,932
People per km²-1,438
Museums within 10 km326
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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