VacationSelector
The pyramids of Giza, Cairo
CairoThe pyramids of Giza
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Cairo by Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Cairo 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 Cairo for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Cairo 10, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Cairo 60, Essaouira 44: Cairo leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cairo 96, Essaouira 48: Cairo leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Cairo 48, Essaouira 14: Cairo leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairo 30, Essaouira 57: Essaouira leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Cairo 66, Essaouira 17: Cairo leads by 49 points.
Good for families. Cairo 32, Essaouira 42: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cairo 35, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Cairo 58, Essaouira 44: Cairo leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cairo 95, Essaouira 74: Cairo leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairo 50, Essaouira 28: Cairo leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairo 15, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 51 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairo and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Cairo
Best match
50match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cairo in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

01020304050JFMAMJJASOND
CairoEssaouira

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. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairoEssaouira
Official languageArabicArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation23 m11 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairoEssaouira
City population9,801,53682,962
People per km²18,56416,592
Museums within 10 km482
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairo 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.