VacationSelector
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mazatlan or Windhoek?

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
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Windhoek for

Windhoek does not lead in any category we score.

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Mazatlan leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Mazatlan 62, Windhoek 36: Mazatlan leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Mazatlan 42, Windhoek 30: Mazatlan leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Mazatlan 55, Windhoek 25: Mazatlan leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mazatlan 66, Windhoek 52: Mazatlan leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Mazatlan 45, Windhoek 14: Mazatlan leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Mazatlan 60, Windhoek 30: Mazatlan leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Mazatlan 42, Windhoek 22: Mazatlan leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Mazatlan and Windhoek are level on 30.
Affordability. Mazatlan 70, Windhoek 62: Mazatlan leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mazatlan 40, Windhoek 18: Mazatlan leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mazatlan 35, Windhoek 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 Windhoek.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

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

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MazatlanWindhoek

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). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMazatlanWindhoek
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7UTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation139 m1,650 m
Main airportGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMazatlanWindhoek
City population441,975486,169
People per km²-95
Museums within 10 km35
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 Windhoek 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.