VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Plovdiv?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Plovdiv’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, Plovdiv 7: Essaouira leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Plovdiv 50: Plovdiv leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Plovdiv 66: Plovdiv leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Plovdiv 68: Plovdiv leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Plovdiv 70: Plovdiv leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Plovdiv 40: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Plovdiv 65: Plovdiv leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Plovdiv 33: Essaouira leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Plovdiv 78: Plovdiv leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Plovdiv 44: Essaouira leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Plovdiv.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Plovdiv
Best match
50match

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

Plovdiv in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPlovdiv

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.

Plovdiv 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.

Plovdiv's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Kurdjali.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPlovdiv
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightBulgarian
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m172 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPlovdiv
City population82,962333,994
People per km²16,5923,274
Museums within 10 km218
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 Plovdiv 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.