VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Johannesburg?

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
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Johannesburg’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, Johannesburg 5: Essaouira leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Johannesburg 56: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Johannesburg 55: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Johannesburg 52: Johannesburg leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Essaouira and Johannesburg are level on 42.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Johannesburg 18: Essaouira leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Johannesburg 72: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Johannesburg 28: Essaouira leads by 38 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Johannesburg.

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 beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

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
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraJohannesburg

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). Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraJohannesburg
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCE50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+2
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m1,753 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraJohannesburg
City population82,9624,803,262
People per km²16,5922,922
Museums within 10 km214
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 Johannesburg 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.