VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The cathedral and the Leaning Tower, Pisa
PisaThe cathedral and the Leaning Tower

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Pisa by Bruno Kraler, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Pisa?

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

  • wellness
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Pisa for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Pisa’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, Pisa 58: Pisa leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Pisa 55: Pisa leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Pisa 68: Pisa leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Pisa 40: Pisa leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Pisa 62: Pisa leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Pisa 92: Pisa leads by 75 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Pisa 52: Pisa leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Pisa 76: Pisa leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Pisa 38: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Pisa 55: Essaouira leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Pisa 38: Pisa leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Pisa 45: Essaouira leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Pisa.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Pisa
Best match
57match

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

Pisa in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPisa

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). Pisa: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPisa
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightItalian
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m4 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)4 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPisa
City population82,96288,737
People per km²16,592479
Museums within 10 km227
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

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