VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Iguazu Falls in the green jungle, Puerto Iguazu
Puerto IguazuThe Iguazu Falls in the green jungle

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Puerto Iguazu by Muhammed Ballan, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Puerto Iguazu?

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
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose Puerto Iguazu for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Iguazu’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, Puerto Iguazu 5: Essaouira leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Puerto Iguazu 28: Essaouira leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Puerto Iguazu 9: Essaouira leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira and Puerto Iguazu are level on 14.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Puerto Iguazu 95: Puerto Iguazu leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Puerto Iguazu 33: Puerto Iguazu leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Puerto Iguazu 55: Puerto Iguazu leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Puerto Iguazu 54: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Puerto Iguazu 17: Essaouira leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Puerto Iguazu 48: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Puerto Iguazu 7: Essaouira leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Puerto Iguazu 34: Essaouira leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Puerto Iguazu.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Puerto Iguazu
33match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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

Puerto Iguazu in July

22 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
103 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPuerto Iguazu

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). Puerto Iguazu: 1991-2020 normals, Iguazu Aerodrome (17.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPuerto Iguazu
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsCE50 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15117 or 911
Elevation11 m162 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsCataratas Del Iguazú International Airport (IGR)18 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPuerto Iguazu
City population82,96254,903
People per km²16,592-
Museums within 10 km20
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 Puerto Iguazu 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.