VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay

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

Essaouira or Huatulco?

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

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Huatulco for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Huatulco’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, Huatulco 86: Huatulco leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira and Huatulco are level on 44.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Huatulco 15: Essaouira leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Huatulco 24: Huatulco leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Huatulco 76: Huatulco leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Huatulco 40: Huatulco leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Huatulco 56: Huatulco leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Huatulco 33: Essaouira leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Huatulco 20: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Huatulco 62: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Huatulco 9: Essaouira leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Huatulco 52: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Huatulco.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Essaouira
45match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Huatulco
43match

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
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Huatulco in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
156 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraHuatulco

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.

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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). Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraHuatulco
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 m220 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraHuatulco
City population82,9627,409
People per km²16,592-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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