VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Cardiff 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 Cardiff for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Cardiff’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. Cardiff 30, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Essaouira 44: Cardiff leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Essaouira 48: Cardiff leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Essaouira 14: Cardiff leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Essaouira 57: Cardiff leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Essaouira 17: Cardiff leads by 55 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Essaouira 42: Cardiff leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Essaouira 58: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Essaouira 44: Cardiff leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Essaouira 28: Cardiff leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 39 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Cardiff
Best match
52match

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.

Cardiff in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffEssaouira

Where the figures come from

Cardiff 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.

Cardiff's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

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. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffEssaouira
Official languageEnglishArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number112 or 999Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation41 m11 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffEssaouira
City population383,53682,962
People per km²2,73416,592
Museums within 10 km92
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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