VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Key West?

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
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose Key West for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Key West’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, Key West 60: Key West leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Key West 45: Key West leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Key West 40: Essaouira leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Key West 62: Key West leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Key West 62: Key West leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Key West 28: Key West leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Key West 40: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Key West 62: Key West leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Key West 30: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Key West 15: Essaouira leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Key West 38: Key West leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Key West 40: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Key West.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Key West
44match

Wins on nightlife and beaches 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

Key West in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraKey West

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.

Key West's temperatures are measured 69 km from the centre, at Key West Airport.

Key West 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). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraKey West
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight-
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m4 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraKey West
City population82,96226,444
People per km²16,5921,407
Museums within 10 km27
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 Key West 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.