VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Chiang Mai 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 Chiang Mai for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • beaches
  • 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. Chiang Mai 6, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Essaouira 44: Chiang Mai leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Essaouira 48: Chiang Mai leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Essaouira 14: Chiang Mai leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Essaouira 57: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Essaouira 17: Chiang Mai leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Essaouira 42: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Essaouira 44: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Essaouira 74: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Essaouira 28: Chiang Mai leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Essaouira 66: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Chiang Mai in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
Chiang MaiEssaouira

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. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiEssaouira
Official languageThaiArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyBaht (THB)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation310 m11 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiEssaouira
City population1,198,00082,962
People per km²2,95816,592
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.