VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Essaouira for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • beaches

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. Edinburgh 22, Essaouira 47: Essaouira leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Essaouira 44: Edinburgh leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Essaouira 48: Edinburgh leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Essaouira 14: Edinburgh leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Essaouira 57: Edinburgh leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Essaouira 17: Edinburgh leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Essaouira 42: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Essaouira 58: Edinburgh leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Essaouira 44: Edinburgh leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Essaouira 74: Essaouira leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Essaouira 28: Edinburgh leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Essaouira 66: Essaouira leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Essaouira.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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.

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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
EdinburghEssaouira

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

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. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghEssaouira
Official languageEnglishArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number112 or 999Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation47 m11 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghEssaouira
City population488,05082,962
People per km²1,88416,592
Museums within 10 km322
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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