VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The fountain in Piazza De Ferrari, Genoa
GenoaThe fountain in Piazza De Ferrari

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Genoa by Faber1893, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Genoa?

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

  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Genoa for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Genoa’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, Genoa 62: Genoa leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Genoa 72: Genoa leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Genoa 76: Genoa leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Genoa 42: Genoa leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Genoa 78: Genoa leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Genoa 83: Genoa leads by 66 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Genoa 64: Genoa leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Genoa 66: Genoa leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Genoa 48: Genoa leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Genoa 55: Essaouira leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Genoa 52: Genoa leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Genoa 35: Essaouira leads by 31 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Genoa.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Genoa
Best match
61match

Wins on day trips and food and drink 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

Genoa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraGenoa

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.

Genoa 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.

Genoa's sunshine is measured 80 km from the centre, at Capo Mele.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Genoa: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraGenoa
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightItalian
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m20 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)7 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraGenoa
City population82,962558,745
People per km²16,5922,325
Museums within 10 km251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Genoa 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.