VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Mazatlan or Wellington?

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 Wellington for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Mazatlan leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan and Wellington are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Wellington 45: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Wellington 40: Mazatlan leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan 30, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Wellington 33: Mazatlan leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Wellington 30: Mazatlan leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mazatlan and Wellington.

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.

Wellington
49match

Wins on getting around 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanWellington
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation139 m0 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanWellington
City population441,975216,200
People per km²-487
Museums within 10 km312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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