VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Comares Tower and the Palace of Charles V, Alhambra, Granada
GranadaComares Tower and the Palace of Charles V, Alhambra

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Granada by Jebulon, CC0.

Essaouira or Granada?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Granada for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Granada’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, Granada 38: Essaouira leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Granada 62: Granada leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Granada 80: Granada leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Granada 58: Granada leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Granada 80: Granada leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Granada 76: Granada leads by 59 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Granada 52: Granada leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Granada 68: Granada leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Granada 40: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Granada 63: Essaouira leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Granada 58: Granada leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Granada 48: Essaouira leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Granada.

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.

Granada
Best match
60match

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

Granada in July

35 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraGranada

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). Granada: 1991-2020 normals, Granada / Caserío Hospicio (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraGranada
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m693 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsF.G.L. Airport Granada-Jaén Airport (GRX)16 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraGranada
City population82,962233,975
People per km²16,5922,659
Museums within 10 km220
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Granada 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.