VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Puerto Vallarta?

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

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Vallarta’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 Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Puerto Vallarta 28: Essaouira leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Puerto Vallarta 45: Essaouira leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Puerto Vallarta 42: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Puerto Vallarta 60: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Puerto Vallarta 52: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on nightlife and beaches 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 Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPuerto Vallarta

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 Vallarta 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 Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPuerto Vallarta
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m101 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPuerto Vallarta
City population82,962224,166
People per km²16,5924,311
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Vallarta 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.