VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Essaouira or La Romana?

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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose La Romana for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on La Romana’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 Romana 84: La Romana leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, La Romana 38: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, La Romana 24: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, La Romana 30: La Romana leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, La Romana 62: La Romana leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, La Romana 52: La Romana leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, La Romana 56: La Romana leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, La Romana 24: Essaouira leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, La Romana 28: Essaouira leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, La Romana 50: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, La Romana 17: Essaouira leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, La Romana 44: Essaouira leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and La Romana.

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

La Romana
42match

Wins on beaches 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

La Romana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraLa Romana

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 Romana's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Punta Cana.

La Romana 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). La Romana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (65.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraLa Romana
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCE50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m10 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraLa Romana
City population82,962139,238
People per km²16,592512
Museums within 10 km20
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 La Romana 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.