VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Portofino?

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
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose Portofino for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Portofino 36: Essaouira leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Portofino 22: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira and Portofino are level on 14.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 59 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Portofino 33: Essaouira leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Portofino 50: Essaouira leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Portofino 29: Essaouira leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Portofino 9: Essaouira leads by 65 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Portofino 7: Essaouira leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Portofino 42: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Portofino.

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on day trips 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPortofino

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.

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPortofino
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 m20 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPortofino
City population82,962355
People per km²16,592142
Museums within 10 km214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Portofino 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.