VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro, Paris
ParisThe Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Paris by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Paris?

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 Paris for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Paris’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, Paris 9: Essaouira leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Paris 96: Paris leads by 52 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Paris 97: Paris leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Paris 80: Paris leads by 66 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Paris 52: Essaouira leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Paris 92: Paris leads by 75 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Paris 79: Paris leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Paris 88: Paris leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Paris 98: Paris leads by 54 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Paris 25: Essaouira leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Paris 88: Paris leads by 60 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Paris 40: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Paris.

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.

Paris
Best match
70match

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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Paris in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraParis

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). Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraParis
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightFrench
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m27 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsCharles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraParis
City population82,9622,103,778
People per km²16,59219,960
Museums within 10 km2251
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 Paris 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.