VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • prices
  • wellness

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. Barcelona 75, Essaouira 47: Barcelona leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Essaouira 44: Barcelona leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Essaouira 48: Barcelona leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Essaouira 14: Barcelona leads by 68 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Essaouira 57: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Essaouira 17: Barcelona leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Essaouira 42: Barcelona leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Essaouira 58: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Essaouira 44: Barcelona leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Essaouira 28: Barcelona leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 28 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on nightlife and day trips with your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices 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.

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Essaouira in July

22 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaEssaouira

Where the figures come from

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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaEssaouira
Official languageSpanishArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number112Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation9 m11 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaEssaouira
City population1,731,64982,962
People per km²17,09416,592
Museums within 10 km952
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.