VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Osaka?

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

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

Choose Osaka for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’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, Osaka 34: Essaouira leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Osaka 91: Osaka leads by 47 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Osaka 63: Osaka leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 66 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Osaka 58: Osaka leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Osaka 97: Osaka leads by 80 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Osaka 88: Osaka leads by 46 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Osaka 90: Osaka leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Osaka 60: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira and Osaka are level on 66.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Osaka.

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.

Osaka
Best match
73match

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

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraOsaka

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). Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraOsaka
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightJapanese
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCE50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 110, fire 119
Elevation11 m20 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraOsaka
City population82,9622,751,862
People per km²16,59212,340
Museums within 10 km244
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km16
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Osaka 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.