VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Lima?

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
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Lima for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’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, Lima 42: Essaouira leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Lima 88: Lima leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Lima 66: Lima leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Lima 62: Lima leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Lima 45: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Lima 34: Lima leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Essaouira and Lima are level on 42.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Lima 35: Essaouira leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Lima 52: Lima leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Lima 70: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Lima 53: Lima leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Lima 25: Essaouira leads by 41 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Lima.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink 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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

01020304050JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraLima

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). Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraLima
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Sol (PEN)
SocketsCE50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15111 or 911
Elevation11 m154 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraLima
City population82,9629,943,800
People per km²16,5923,721
Museums within 10 km247
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Lima 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.