VacationSelector
The cathedral from the Torre Tavira, Cadiz
CadizThe cathedral from the Torre Tavira
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Cadiz by Bronch, CC BY-SA 3.0 ES, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Cadiz 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 Cadiz for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • 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. Cadiz 80, Essaouira 47: Cadiz leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Cadiz 68, Essaouira 44: Cadiz leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Cadiz 62, Essaouira 48: Cadiz leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Cadiz 45, Essaouira 14: Cadiz leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cadiz 66, Essaouira 57: Cadiz leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Cadiz 80, Essaouira 17: Cadiz leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Cadiz 60, Essaouira 42: Cadiz leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Cadiz 70, Essaouira 58: Cadiz leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Cadiz 35, Essaouira 44: Essaouira leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Cadiz 58, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cadiz 52, Essaouira 28: Cadiz leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cadiz 42, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cadiz and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Cadiz
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and beaches 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.

Cadiz in July

28 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 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
CadizEssaouira

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. Cadiz: 1991-2020 normals, Cadiz Bay / Puntales (5.2 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCadizEssaouira
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
Elevation11 m11 m
Main airportJerez Airport (XRY)31 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCadizEssaouira
City population109,95082,962
People per km²9,08716,592
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Cadiz 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.