VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens, Marrakech
MarrakechThe Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Marrakech by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Marrakech?

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

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Marrakech for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Marrakech’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, Marrakech 7: Cape Town leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Marrakech 64: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Marrakech 76: Marrakech leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Marrakech 33: Cape Town leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Marrakech 70: Cape Town leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Marrakech 28: Cape Town leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Marrakech 25: Cape Town leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Marrakech 38: Marrakech leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Marrakech 72: Marrakech leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cape Town and Marrakech are level on 72.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Marrakech 25: Cape Town leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Marrakech 75: Marrakech leads by 30 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Marrakech.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Marrakech
49match

Wins on wellness and shopping 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

Marrakech in July

38 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownMarrakech

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Marrakech: 1991-2020 normals, Marrakech (5.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownMarrakech
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 m465 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsMarrakesh Menara Airport (RAK)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownMarrakech
City population3,776,3131,002,697
People per km²1,5384,360
Museums within 10 km2214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town or Marrakech 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.