VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Rome?

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

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

Choose Rome for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Rome’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, Rome 50: Rome leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Rome 82: Rome leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Rome 99: Rome leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Rome 58: Rome leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Rome 58: Rome leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Rome 92: Rome leads by 75 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Rome 50: Rome leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Rome 60: Rome leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Rome 72: Rome leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Rome 38: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Rome 68: Rome leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Rome 40: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Rome
Best match
64match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

Rome in July

31 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraRome

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.

Rome's sunshine is measured 31 km from the centre, at Vigna Di Valle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraRome
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightItalian
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m21 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraRome
City population82,9622,748,109
People per km²16,5922,135
Museums within 10 km2178
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km17
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Rome 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.