VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Huntington Beach?

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

  • prices
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Huntington Beach’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, Huntington Beach 70: Huntington Beach leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Huntington Beach 46: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Huntington Beach 14: Essaouira leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Huntington Beach 38: Huntington Beach leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Huntington Beach 58: Huntington Beach leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Huntington Beach 63: Huntington Beach leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Huntington Beach 20: Essaouira leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Huntington Beach 42: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Huntington Beach 28: Essaouira leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Huntington Beach 33: Huntington Beach leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Huntington Beach 36: Essaouira leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Huntington Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on day trips and families 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

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraHuntington Beach

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). Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraHuntington Beach
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight-
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m12 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraHuntington Beach
City population82,962198,711
People per km²16,5922,406
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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