VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Cusco 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 Cusco for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

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. Cusco 3, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Essaouira 44: Cusco leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Essaouira 48: Cusco leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Essaouira 14: Cusco leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Essaouira 57: Cusco leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Essaouira 17: Cusco leads by 61 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Essaouira 42: Essaouira leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Essaouira 58: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Essaouira 44: Cusco leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Essaouira 28: Cusco leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Cusco
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches 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.

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoEssaouira

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

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. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoEssaouira
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencySol (PEN)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1
Emergency number111 or 911Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation3,399 m11 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoEssaouira
City population428,45082,962
People per km²-16,592
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Cusco 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). 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.