VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas

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

Essaouira or Guadalajara?

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

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • getting around

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

Choose Guadalajara for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Guadalajara’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, Guadalajara 5: Essaouira leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Guadalajara 75: Guadalajara leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Guadalajara 62: Guadalajara leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Guadalajara 68: Guadalajara leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Guadalajara 55: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Guadalajara 66: Guadalajara leads by 49 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Guadalajara 55: Guadalajara leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Guadalajara 40: Essaouira leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Guadalajara 78: Guadalajara leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Guadalajara 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 Guadalajara.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Guadalajara
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and day trips 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraGuadalajara

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.

Guadalajara has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraGuadalajara
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m1,536 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraGuadalajara
City population82,9621,385,621
People per km²16,5929,556
Museums within 10 km217
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 Guadalajara 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.