VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Milan?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Milan for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Milan’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, Milan 20: Essaouira leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Milan 78: Milan leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Milan 78: Milan leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Milan 66: Milan leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Milan 65: Milan leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Milan 91: Milan leads by 74 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Milan 55: Milan leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Milan 79: Milan leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Milan 92: Milan leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Milan 33: Essaouira leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Milan 82: Milan leads by 54 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Milan 42: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Milan.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Milan
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraMilan

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.

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraMilan
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightItalian
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m138 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraMilan
City population82,9621,354,196
People per km²16,5927,453
Museums within 10 km288
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
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 Milan 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.