VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Ferries off the Kordon promenade, Izmir
IzmirFerries off the Kordon promenade

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Izmir by Toygar Par, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Izmir?

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

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

Choose Izmir for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Izmir’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, Izmir 62: Izmir leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Izmir 72: Izmir leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Izmir 55: Izmir leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Izmir 60: Izmir leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Izmir 66: Izmir leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Izmir 86: Izmir leads by 69 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Izmir 55: Izmir leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Izmir 63: Izmir leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Izmir 55: Izmir leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Izmir 66: Essaouira leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Izmir 48: Izmir leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Izmir 57: Essaouira leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Izmir.

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.

Izmir
Best match
62match

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

Izmir in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraIzmir

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). Izmir: 1991-2020 normals, Izmir (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraIzmir
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightTurkish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsCE50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m2 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsAdnan Menderes International Airport (ADB)13 km from centre120 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraIzmir
City population82,9624,493,242
People per km²16,5924,760
Museums within 10 km229
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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