VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0.

Essaouira or Florianopolis?

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 Essaouira for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Florianopolis for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Florianopolis’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. Essaouira 47, Florianopolis 85: Florianopolis leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Florianopolis 58: Florianopolis leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Florianopolis 33: Essaouira leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Florianopolis 78: Florianopolis leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Florianopolis 50: Florianopolis leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Florianopolis 28: Essaouira leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Florianopolis 33: Essaouira leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Florianopolis 60: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira and Florianopolis are level on 28.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Florianopolis 45: Essaouira leads by 21 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Florianopolis.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on getting around and wellness with your weighting.

Florianopolis
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

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

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraFlorianopolis

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. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraFlorianopolis
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightPortuguese
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCE50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation11 m3 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraFlorianopolis
City population82,962587,486
People per km²16,592870
Museums within 10 km211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Florianopolis 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.