VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Cologne 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 Cologne for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Cologne 14, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Essaouira 44: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Essaouira 48: Cologne leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Essaouira 14: Cologne leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Essaouira 57: Essaouira leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Essaouira 17: Cologne leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Essaouira 42: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Essaouira 58: Cologne leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Essaouira 44: Cologne leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Essaouira 28: Cologne leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches 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.

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CologneEssaouira

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. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneEssaouira
Official languageGermanArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number112Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation59 m11 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneEssaouira
City population1,025,52382,962
People per km²2,53216,592
Museums within 10 km402
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Cologne 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.