VacationSelector
A heritage tram before the Regent building, Christchurch
ChristchurchA heritage tram before the Regent building
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Christchurch by Bernard Spragg. NZ, CC0; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Christchurch 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 Christchurch for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • shopping

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. Christchurch 38, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Christchurch 45, Essaouira 44: Christchurch leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Christchurch 38, Essaouira 48: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Christchurch 32, Essaouira 14: Christchurch leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Christchurch 84, Essaouira 57: Christchurch leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Christchurch 45, Essaouira 17: Christchurch leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Christchurch 66, Essaouira 42: Christchurch leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Christchurch 48, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Christchurch 32, Essaouira 44: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Christchurch 38, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Christchurch 38, Essaouira 28: Christchurch leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Christchurch 45, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Christchurch and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Christchurch
46match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors 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.

Christchurch in July

11 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
9 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
ChristchurchEssaouira

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. Christchurch: 1991-2020 normals, Christchurch (8.7 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChristchurchEssaouira
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number111Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation20 m11 m
Main airportChristchurch International Airport (CHC)10 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChristchurchEssaouira
City population383,20082,962
People per km²1,29816,592
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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