VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or Sao Paulo?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Mazatlan leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Sao Paulo 60: Sao Paulo leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Sao Paulo 48: Mazatlan leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Sao Paulo 47: Sao Paulo leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Sao Paulo 52: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Sao Paulo 44: Sao Paulo leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Sao Paulo 62: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Sao Paulo 25: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Mazatlan
52match

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

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on shopping 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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanSao Paulo

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). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanSao Paulo
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 m760 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanSao Paulo
City population441,97511,451,999
People per km²-7,519
Museums within 10 km390
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 Sao Paulo 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.