VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

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. Arequipa 8, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Essaouira 44: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Essaouira 48: Arequipa leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Essaouira 14: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Essaouira 57: Arequipa leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Essaouira 17: Arequipa leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Essaouira 42: Essaouira leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa and Essaouira are level on 44.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Essaouira 74: Arequipa leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Essaouira 28: Essaouira leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Arequipa
46match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife 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.

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

01020304050JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaEssaouira

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaEssaouira
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencySol (PEN)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1
Emergency number111 or 911Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation2,335 m11 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaEssaouira
City population1,008,29082,962
People per km²1,55116,592
Museums within 10 km32
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 Arequipa 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.