VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Galway?

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

  • prices
  • wellness
  • beaches

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

Choose Galway for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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, Galway 28: Essaouira leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Galway 45: Galway leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Galway 33: Essaouira leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Galway 50: Galway leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Galway 78: Galway leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Galway 56: Galway leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Essaouira and Galway are level on 42.
Getting around. Essaouira and Galway are level on 58.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Galway 38: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Galway 28: Essaouira leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Galway 57: Galway leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Galway 28: Essaouira leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Galway.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Galway
45match

Wins on day trips and nightlife 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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraGalway

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.

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraGalway
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish, Irish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m25 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraGalway
City population82,96283,456
People per km²16,5921,563
Museums within 10 km24
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Galway 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.