VacationSelector
Banff Avenue below Cascade Mountain, Banff
BanffBanff Avenue below Cascade Mountain
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud

Photos: Banff by bryan pascual, Pexels License; Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Banff or Fes?

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 Banff for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Fes for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Fes’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. Banff 12, Fes 5: Banff leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Banff 32, Fes 62: Fes leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Banff 22, Fes 80: Fes leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Banff 30, Fes 12: Banff leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Banff 98, Fes 52: Banff leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Banff 25, Fes 62: Fes leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Banff 60, Fes 22: Banff leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Banff 55, Fes 40: Banff leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Banff 28, Fes 68: Fes leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Banff 18, Fes 80: Fes leads by 62 points.
Live music & performing arts. Banff and Fes are level on 32.
Wellness & relaxation. Banff 54, Fes 70: Fes leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Banff and Fes.

Your match

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

Banff
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Fes
Best match
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Banff in July

23 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
BanffFes

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Banff: 1991-2020 normals, Banff (2 km from centre). Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBanffFes
Official languageFrench, EnglishArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)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
Elevation1,400 m408 m
Main airportCalgary International Airport (YYC)109 km from centre103 non-stop destinationsFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBanffFes
City population8,3051,167,842
People per km²1,7303,650
Museums within 10 km42
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Banff or Fes 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.