VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Essaouira or Punta Cana?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’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, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Punta Cana 30: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Punta Cana 8: Essaouira leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Punta Cana 40: Punta Cana leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Punta Cana 52: Essaouira leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Punta Cana 35: Punta Cana leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Punta Cana 15: Essaouira leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Punta Cana 30: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Punta Cana 44: Essaouira leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Punta Cana 15: Essaouira leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Punta Cana 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 Punta Cana.

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.

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches 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

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPunta Cana

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.

Punta Cana 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). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPunta Cana
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCE50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m28 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPunta Cana
City population82,962138,919
People per km²16,592292
Museums within 10 km20
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 Punta Cana 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.