VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0.

Essaouira or Limassol?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Limassol for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Limassol’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, Limassol 77: Limassol leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Limassol 58: Limassol leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Limassol 38: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Limassol 50: Limassol leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Limassol 65: Limassol leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Limassol 76: Limassol leads by 59 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Limassol 63: Limassol leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Limassol 38: Essaouira leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Limassol 42: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Limassol 44: Essaouira leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Limassol 32: Limassol leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Limassol 42: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Limassol.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Limassol
Best match
52match

Wins on day trips 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
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraLimassol

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.

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraLimassol
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m10 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraLimassol
City population82,962107,970
People per km²16,5922,405
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Limassol 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.