VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Medellin?

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
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Medellin for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’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, Medellin 5: Essaouira leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Medellin 42: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 62 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Medellin 50: Medellin leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Medellin 55: Essaouira leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Medellin 45: Medellin leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Medellin 30: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Medellin.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Medellin
Best match
51match

Wins on nightlife and day trips 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraMedellin

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.

Medellin 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). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraMedellin
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCE50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15123
Elevation11 m1,405 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraMedellin
City population82,9622,529,403
People per km²16,5926,644
Museums within 10 km214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Medellin 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.