VacationSelector
The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, Catania
CataniaThe Cathedral of Sant'Agata
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Catania by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Catania 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 Catania for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • getting around

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. Catania 72, Essaouira 47: Catania leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Catania 77, Essaouira 44: Catania leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Catania 62, Essaouira 48: Catania leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Catania 60, Essaouira 14: Catania leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Catania 83, Essaouira 57: Catania leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Catania 84, Essaouira 17: Catania leads by 67 points.
Good for families. Catania 50, Essaouira 42: Catania leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Catania 48, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Catania 42, Essaouira 44: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Catania 60, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Catania 55, Essaouira 28: Catania leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Catania 30, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Catania and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Catania
Best match
60match

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.

Catania in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CataniaEssaouira

Where the figures come from

Catania's sunshine is measured 88 km from the centre, at Messina.

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. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Fontanarossa (5.2 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCataniaEssaouira
Official languageItalianArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number112Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation7 m11 m
Main airportCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre96 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCataniaEssaouira
City population311,58482,962
People per km²1,70416,592
Museums within 10 km252
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Catania 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.