VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Jet d'Eau and a lake boat, Geneva
GenevaThe Jet d'Eau and a lake boat

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Geneva by Diviosen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Geneva?

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 Geneva for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Geneva’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, Geneva 45: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Geneva 55: Geneva leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Geneva 58: Geneva leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Geneva 38: Geneva leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Geneva 82: Geneva leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Geneva 80: Geneva leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Geneva 57: Geneva leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Geneva 86: Geneva leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Geneva 68: Geneva leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Geneva 5: Essaouira leads by 69 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Geneva 60: Geneva leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Geneva 55: Essaouira leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Geneva.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Geneva
Best match
57match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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

Geneva in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraGeneva

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). Geneva: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraGeneva
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCE50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m403 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGeneva International Airport (GVA)5 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraGeneva
City population82,962211,152
People per km²16,59213,280
Museums within 10 km234
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Geneva 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.