VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Mazatlan by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Mazatlan?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Mazatlan’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, Mazatlan 80: Mazatlan leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Mazatlan 42: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Mazatlan 66: Mazatlan leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Mazatlan 45: Mazatlan leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Mazatlan 60: Mazatlan leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Mazatlan 42: Essaouira leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Mazatlan 30: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Mazatlan 70: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Mazatlan 35: Essaouira leads by 31 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Mazatlan.

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.

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and beaches 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

Mazatlan in July

34 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraMazatlan

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). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraMazatlan
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-7
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m139 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraMazatlan
City population82,962441,975
People per km²16,592-
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Mazatlan 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.