VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • prices

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. Cape Town 58, Essaouira 47: Cape Town leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Essaouira 44: Cape Town leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Essaouira 48: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Essaouira 14: Cape Town leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Essaouira 57: Cape Town leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Essaouira 17: Cape Town leads by 51 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Essaouira 42: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Essaouira 44: Cape Town leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Essaouira 28: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

Wins on getting around 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.

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 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
Cape TownEssaouira

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. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownEssaouira
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1
Emergency number112Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation5 m11 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownEssaouira
City population3,776,31382,962
People per km²1,53816,592
Museums within 10 km222
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.