VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Alta, Utah or Essaouira?

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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Essaouira for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Essaouira’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. Alta, Utah 3, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Essaouira 44: Essaouira leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Essaouira 48: Essaouira leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Essaouira 14: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Essaouira 57: Alta, Utah leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Essaouira 17: Alta, Utah leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Essaouira 42: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Essaouira 44: Essaouira leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Essaouira 28: Essaouira leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 31 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Essaouira in July

22 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

01020304050JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahEssaouira

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Essaouira has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahEssaouira
Official language-Arabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number911Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation2,610 m11 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahEssaouira
City population22882,962
People per km²1916,592
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Essaouira somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.