VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or Santiago?

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
  • families

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

Choose Santiago for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Mazatlan leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Santiago 60: Mazatlan leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Santiago 70: Santiago leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Santiago 57: Mazatlan leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Santiago 58: Mazatlan leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Santiago 37: Santiago leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Santiago.

Your match

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

Mazatlan
52match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanSantiago

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). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanSantiago
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation139 m575 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanSantiago
City population441,9756,257,516
People per km²-7,468
Museums within 10 km354
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 Santiago 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.