VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Charleston 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 Charleston for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • 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. Charleston 72, Essaouira 47: Charleston leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Essaouira 44: Charleston leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Essaouira 48: Charleston leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Essaouira 14: Charleston leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Essaouira 57: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Essaouira 17: Charleston leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Essaouira 42: Charleston leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Essaouira 44: Charleston leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Essaouira 28: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 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: Charleston and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices 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.

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Essaouira in July

22 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonEssaouira

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. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonEssaouira
Official language-Arabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number911Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation6 m11 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonEssaouira
City population150,22782,962
People per km²53216,592
Museums within 10 km192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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