VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Bilbao 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 Bilbao for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • beaches

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. Bilbao 45, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Essaouira 44: Bilbao leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Essaouira 48: Bilbao leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Essaouira 14: Bilbao leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Essaouira 57: Bilbao leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Essaouira 17: Bilbao leads by 61 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Essaouira 42: Bilbao leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Essaouira 58: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Essaouira 44: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Essaouira 28: Bilbao leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bilbao in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
54 mmrain in the month
6 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°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoEssaouira

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. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoEssaouira
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
Elevation19 m11 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoEssaouira
City population351,12482,962
People per km²8,44016,592
Museums within 10 km172
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 monthNone

Where else could you go?

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