VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Palm Springs

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Palm Springs?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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, Palm Springs 7: Essaouira leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Palm Springs 40: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Palm Springs 42: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Palm Springs 36: Palm Springs leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Palm Springs 38: Palm Springs leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Palm Springs 40: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Palm Springs 22: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira and Palm Springs are level on 44.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Palm Springs 32: Essaouira leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors 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

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

01020304050JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPalm Springs

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.

Palm Springs 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). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPalm Springs
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight-
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m146 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPalm Springs
City population82,96244,575
People per km²16,592181
Museums within 10 km23
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 Palm Springs 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.