VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Luang Prabang?

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

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Luang Prabang for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Luang Prabang’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, Luang Prabang 14: Essaouira leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Luang Prabang 42: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Luang Prabang 65: Luang Prabang leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Luang Prabang 8: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Luang Prabang 68: Luang Prabang leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Luang Prabang 35: Luang Prabang leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Luang Prabang 38: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Luang Prabang 50: Essaouira leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Luang Prabang 38: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Luang Prabang 80: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Luang Prabang 18: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Luang Prabang 60: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Luang Prabang.

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 beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraLuang Prabang

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). Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraLuang Prabang
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightLao
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Lao Kip (LAK)
SocketsCE50 HzABCEF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 191, ambulance 195, fire 190
Elevation11 m305 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraLuang Prabang
City population82,96253,792
People per km²16,592-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Luang Prabang 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.