VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Puerto Princesa?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Princesa’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 Princesa 58: Puerto Princesa leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Puerto Princesa 38: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Puerto Princesa 22: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Puerto Princesa 26: Puerto Princesa leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Puerto Princesa 12: Essaouira leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Puerto Princesa 45: Puerto Princesa leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Puerto Princesa 30: Essaouira leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Puerto Princesa 20: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Puerto Princesa 78: Puerto Princesa leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Puerto Princesa 10: Essaouira leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Puerto Princesa 40: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Puerto Princesa.

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

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

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPuerto Princesa

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.

Puerto Princesa has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPuerto Princesa
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsCE50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m98 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPuerto Princesa
City population82,962316,384
People per km²16,592133
Museums within 10 km21
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 Puerto Princesa 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.