VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • 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. Colombo 55, Essaouira 47: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Essaouira 44: Colombo leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Essaouira 48: Essaouira leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Essaouira 14: Colombo leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Essaouira 57: Essaouira leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Essaouira 17: Colombo leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Essaouira 42: Essaouira leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Essaouira 44: Colombo leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Essaouira 74: Colombo leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Essaouira 28: Colombo leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo 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

Colombo
46match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboEssaouira

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboEssaouira
Official languageTamil, SinhalaArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+1
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation1 m11 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboEssaouira
City population647,55782,962
People per km²17,36116,592
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.