VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Kathmandu?

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
  • families

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

Choose Kathmandu for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Kathmandu’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, Kathmandu 4: Essaouira leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Kathmandu 55: Kathmandu leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Kathmandu 82: Kathmandu leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Kathmandu 36: Kathmandu leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Kathmandu 70: Kathmandu leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Kathmandu 56: Kathmandu leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Kathmandu 20: Essaouira leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Kathmandu 25: Essaouira leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Kathmandu 55: Kathmandu leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Kathmandu 97: Kathmandu leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira and Kathmandu are level on 28.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Kathmandu 45: Essaouira leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Kathmandu.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Kathmandu
Best match
48match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraKathmandu

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). Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraKathmandu
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightNepali
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
SocketsCE50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+5:45
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 100, ambulance 102, fire 101
Elevation11 m1,300 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraKathmandu
City population82,962845,767
People per km²16,59217,121
Museums within 10 km29
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Kathmandu 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.