VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Punta del Este

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Punta del Este?

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
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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 del Este 72: Punta del Este leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Punta del Este 22: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Punta del Este 60: Punta del Este leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Punta del Este 55: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Punta del Este 55: Punta del Este leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Punta del Este 35: Essaouira leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Punta del Este 42: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Punta del Este 20: Essaouira leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Punta del Este 22: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Punta del Este 32: Essaouira leads by 34 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Punta del Este.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on nightlife 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

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraPunta del Este

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 del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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 del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPunta del Este
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight-
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsCE50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m11 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPunta del Este
City population82,9629,277
People per km²16,592455
Museums within 10 km25
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Punta del Este 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.