VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Petra?

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

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • getting around

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Petra’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, Petra 5: Essaouira leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Petra 22: Essaouira leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Petra 85: Petra leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Petra 5: Essaouira leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Petra 78: Petra leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Petra 30: Petra leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Petra 25: Essaouira leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Petra 25: Essaouira leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Petra 18: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Petra 45: Essaouira leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Petra 10: Essaouira leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Petra 28: Essaouira leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Petra.

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights 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
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

01020304050JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPetra

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.

Petra's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Ma'An.

Petra's station stands 219 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Petra 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). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPetra
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightArabic
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCE50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m850 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPetra
City population82,962-
People per km²16,592-
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Petra 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. 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.