VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Cartagena 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 Cartagena for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • 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. Cartagena 70, Essaouira 47: Cartagena leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Essaouira 44: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Essaouira 48: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Essaouira 14: Cartagena leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Essaouira 57: Essaouira leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Essaouira 17: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Essaouira 42: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Essaouira 44: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Essaouira 28: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Cartagena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
124 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaEssaouira

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. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaEssaouira
Official languageSpanishArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1
Emergency number123Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation2 m11 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaEssaouira
City population914,55282,962
People per km²1,59916,592
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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