VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Essaouira or Phuket?

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
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Phuket for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’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, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Phuket 35: Essaouira leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Phuket 45: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Phuket 22: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Phuket 42: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Phuket 68: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Phuket 20: Essaouira leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 16 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and beaches 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

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPhuket

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.

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPhuket
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightThai
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Baht (THB)
SocketsCE50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation11 m19 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPhuket
City population82,96277,610
People per km²16,5926,468
Museums within 10 km22
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 Phuket 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. 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.