VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Manchester?

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
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Manchester for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Manchester’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, Manchester 9: Essaouira leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Manchester 51: Manchester leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Manchester 50: Manchester leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Manchester 72: Manchester leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Manchester 64: Manchester leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Manchester 77: Manchester leads by 60 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Manchester 58: Manchester leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Manchester 68: Manchester leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Manchester 62: Manchester leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Manchester 42: Essaouira leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Manchester 74: Manchester leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Manchester 15: Essaouira leads by 51 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Manchester.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Manchester
Best match
54match

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

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraManchester

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). Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraManchester
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCE50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112 or 999
Elevation11 m38 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraManchester
City population82,962547,627
People per km²16,5924,737
Museums within 10 km228
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Manchester 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.