VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Essaouira 44: Antigua Guatemala leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Essaouira 48: Antigua Guatemala leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Essaouira 14: Antigua Guatemala leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Essaouira 57: Antigua Guatemala leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Essaouira 17: Antigua Guatemala leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Essaouira 42: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Essaouira 58: Antigua Guatemala leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Essaouira 44: Antigua Guatemala leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Essaouira 28: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Antigua Guatemala
47match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 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

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaEssaouira

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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.

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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaEssaouira
Official languageSpanishArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation1,582 m11 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaEssaouira
City population59,09182,962
People per km²-16,592
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Antigua Guatemala or Essaouira 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.