VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Lisbon?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Lisbon for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Lisbon’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, Lisbon 50: Lisbon leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Lisbon 78: Lisbon leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 61 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Lisbon 82: Lisbon leads by 65 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Lisbon 62: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Lisbon 66: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Lisbon 55: Essaouira leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Lisbon 36: Essaouira leads by 30 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Lisbon
Best match
65match

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

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraLisbon

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). Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraLisbon
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightPortuguese
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m100 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraLisbon
City population82,962545,796
People per km²16,5925,453
Museums within 10 km280
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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