VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Las Vegas?

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
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Las Vegas for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Las Vegas’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, Las Vegas 10: Essaouira leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Las Vegas 25: Essaouira leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Las Vegas 88: Las Vegas leads by 74 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Las Vegas 25: Las Vegas leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Las Vegas 25: Essaouira leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Las Vegas 38: Essaouira leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Las Vegas 64: Las Vegas leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Las Vegas 35: Essaouira leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Las Vegas 78: Las Vegas leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Las Vegas 40: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
0255075100

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

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 prices and beaches with your weighting.

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

01020304050JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraLas Vegas

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). Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraLas Vegas
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight-
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m610 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraLas Vegas
City population82,962641,903
People per km²16,5921,843
Museums within 10 km221
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Las Vegas 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.