VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
La Paz

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Essaouira or La Paz?

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
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose La Paz for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on La Paz’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, La Paz 3: Essaouira leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, La Paz 50: La Paz leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, La Paz 52: La Paz leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, La Paz 38: La Paz leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, La Paz 82: La Paz leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, La Paz 40: La Paz leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, La Paz 10: Essaouira leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, La Paz 45: Essaouira leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, La Paz 45: La Paz leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, La Paz 92: La Paz leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, La Paz 35: La Paz leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, La Paz 12: Essaouira leads by 54 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

La Paz
42match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraLa Paz

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.

La Paz has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraLa Paz
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Boliviano (BOB)
SocketsCE50 HzAC50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m3,640 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraLa Paz
City population82,962755,732
People per km²16,5921,601
Museums within 10 km221
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 La Paz 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.