VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Montego Bay?

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

  • getting around
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Montego Bay’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, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Montego Bay 28: Essaouira leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Montego Bay 42: Montego Bay leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Montego Bay 65: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Montego Bay 48: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Montego Bay 20: Essaouira leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Montego Bay 25: Essaouira leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Montego Bay 38: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Montego Bay 32: Montego Bay leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Montego Bay 45: Essaouira leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Essaouira
45match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches 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
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraMontego Bay

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). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraMontego Bay
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCE50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation11 m19 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraMontego Bay
City population82,962123,994
People per km²16,592-
Museums within 10 km20
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 Montego Bay 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.