VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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. Biarritz 68, Essaouira 47: Biarritz leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Essaouira 44: Biarritz leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Essaouira 48: Essaouira leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Essaouira 14: Biarritz leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Essaouira 57: Biarritz leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Essaouira 17: Biarritz leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Essaouira 42: Biarritz leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Biarritz and Essaouira are level on 58.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Essaouira 44: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Essaouira 28: Biarritz leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

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.

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzEssaouira

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. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzEssaouira
Official languageFrenchArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number112Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation0 m11 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzEssaouira
City population26,20682,962
People per km²2,24016,592
Museums within 10 km82
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz 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.