VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Gulf Shores?

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

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Gulf Shores for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Gulf Shores’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, Gulf Shores 84: Gulf Shores leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Gulf Shores 38: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Gulf Shores 12: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Gulf Shores 32: Gulf Shores leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Gulf Shores 52: Essaouira leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Gulf Shores 52: Gulf Shores leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Gulf Shores 75: Gulf Shores leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Gulf Shores 15: Essaouira leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Gulf Shores 22: Essaouira leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Gulf Shores 42: Essaouira leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Gulf Shores 27: Essaouira leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Gulf Shores 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 Gulf Shores.

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on getting around and wellness with your weighting.

Gulf Shores
40match

Wins on beaches 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

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraGulf Shores

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.

Gulf Shores 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). Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraGulf Shores
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight-
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m2 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraGulf Shores
City population82,96215,014
People per km²16,592207
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Gulf Shores 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.